Stolen phones on display

Just as many other cities across the country, D.C. has been hit by a rash of robberies, a large part targeting people with iPhones and other electronic gadgets. Now D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier has a message for national cell phone service providers—step up and help stop the thefts.

During a segment that aired on NBC’s The Today Show this morning, Lanier spared nothing in telling the service providers what she thinks of their hesitation to employ technology that would allow phones to be permanently disabled after being reported stolen. “Shame on you. This is something that’s fixable. It’s not all about profit,” she said.

Lanier is one of 70 police chiefs from around the country who have joined together to ask service providers and the FCC to do what has been done in the UK and Australia for years—brick phones after they’re stolen. At a press conference last month, Lanier said that doing so would largely take the profit motive out of the theft of phones and other gadgets. (Last week, D.C. police announced the arrest of 16 people associated with 13 businesses that were peddling the stolen phones.)

According to the NBC report, John Walls, the vice president for public affairs of CTIA-The Wireless Association, says that it’s not as easy as Lanier and others say. “They might be the crime experts, but there’s this considerable technical expertise and recognition on the industry side of the fence,” Walls said. “It’s just not that simple.”

Lanier seems to think differently. “I’ve got police chiefs all the across the country that say it will. There are lives at stake here. You know, this is a deadly situation. It needs to be rectified, and it needs to be rectified immediately.”

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