29
Sep
2014
By Calvin at 09:19 GMT, 11 years ago
An interesting new report concerning mobile phone theft has just been published by the Home Office. Please follow the link below to read the pdf
Their Executive Summary (part)
Crime in England and Wales has fallen by more than 10 percent under the Coalition
Government, and the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales shows crime at its
lowest level since the survey started in 1981.
While the overall trend is encouraging, the level of mobile phone theft remains a concern. There were around three quarters of a million victims of mobile phone theft in England and Wales in the year 2012/13. Almost 100,000 of these thefts took place in London alone. Mobile phones are increasingly valuable, due not just to the growing sophistication of their technology, but also to the personal and financial data stored on them. Some estimates put the value of data held on typical smartphones at more than the value of the phone itself.
Following analysis of results from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, and by examining hundreds of thousands of data points detailing mobile phone thefts in London (for period 1 August 2012 to 5 January 2014 – the latest data available to us), we have produced the most detailed evidence yet on how and when mobile phones are stolen, and who is most at risk. We recognise that the picture may well have changed following the widespread introduction of device-based solutions since September 2013, but the analysis here represents the most up to date picture available to us.
The Home Office intends to produce a further analysis next year.
Reducing Mobile Phone Theft and Improving Security pdf https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/351135/HO_Mobile_theft_paper_050914_FINAL.PDF
