Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Paul Quander, Lanier, Gray and Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3)

Most everyone has a smart phone these days, and plenty of people aren’t discrete about using them out in the open. But for D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, every smart phone user is a potential victim, and today she joined Mayor Vince Gray in warning of a citywide uptick in robberies and thefts of phones and other electronic gadgets.

At a press conference at MPD headquarters, Gray noted that while murders have hit a historic low, robberies and thefts have increased substantially from last year — anywhere between 33 and 50 percent, he said. Calling it the “single fastest rising criminal issue I’ve seen in a long time,” Lanier stressed that police have shifted gears to better respond to the robberies and thefts that occur across the city, especially of phones, which can be quickly turned around and resold.

She said that she had reassigned 200 officers to focus on the troubling trend, and that through February they had already posted 150 arrests. She also rolled out a new initiative that would encourage people to provide information on the theft of phones. Called “It’s Pay Day Every Day,” MPD is willing to pay up to $10,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the theft and resale of phones. According to Lanier, the initiative seeks to take the profit motive out of the theft of phones by making information on the stolen phones more valuable than selling them.

More broadly, though, Lanier said that this is a national problem that requires a national response. To that end, she said she had started working with other major city police chiefs to encourage the FCC and providers to to what the UK already does: permanently disable phones that are stolen. (New York Sen. Chuck Schumer advocated as much last year.) Lanier said that she had participated in a conference call with national service providers last week, but no commitments had yet been made.

Until more movement can be made on that front, she encouraged resident and visitors to be more careful with their phones.