Last month, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier and Mayor Vince Gray warned of a spike in the theft of electronic devices and pleaded for help from residents, asking that they not flash iPhones around and offering up to $10,000 for information leading to arrests. Yesterday, Lanier and Gray gathered again, this time to announce that they had made arrests.

According to WJLA, D.C. police arrested 16 people at 13 businesses around the city that are accused of encouraging the thefts so they could resell everything from iPhones to iPads. Standing in front of a table covered in electronic gadgets, Lanier said that those accused would be charged with trafficking in stolen goods.

According to the Post, Lanier also said that crime had decreased by 15 percent over the last 30 days. Additionally, she said that even top police brass were getting in on the crime-fighting—the commander of the Third District apprehended an accused phone thief downtown after chasing him by foot, she said.

At her press conference last month, Lanier said she was working with other big city police chiefs to press service providers and the FCC to permanently disable phones once they are stolen. Last week, the D.C. Council passed a resolution endorsing such a move, which has been adopted in Britain.