'You need to give up': Met police chief's warning to phone snatch gangs in London - as new 'kill switch' makes stolen handsets 'unusable bricks'

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Speaking directly to the criminal gangs profiting off stolen devices, Sir Mark Rowley told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, "we are breaking your business model" - as he unveiled a new "kill switch" making criminals' lives harder.

The new "kill switch" comes as default as part of the latest iPhone security update, with owners urged to install the latest software update in order to activate the feature.

Samsung and Google are also working on similar updates to their mobile phones.

Sir Mark called on the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to force phone companies to make stolen handsets "unusable bricks" in a battle against handset thefts earlier this year.

On Thursday, the force revealed it had started sharing data with Apple as part of a groundbreaking partnership to closely track whether stolen handsets get reconnected to a phone network after they are taken.

Around 80 per cent of devices stolen in London are reactivated in other parts of the world.

However, following the latest security upgrades pushed to iPhone handsets, Sir Mark Rowley revealed that 20 per cent or less of stolen devices are now being reactivated.

Read More: Met chief tells tech giants to make stolen phones ‘unusable bricks’ to tackle organised gangs

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He went on to describe the security upgrades following data sharing with Apple as "a big breakthrough".

"The Met Police and Apple are breaking your business model," he said, outlining that the collaboration aims to "increase the jeopardy for the criminals," the commissioner added.

Sir Mark had issued an ultimatum in March, where he called on telecoms giants to take action to make phones less desirable to steal by making them impossible to reuse.

"Apple have made some real progress," Sir Mark revealed to Nick, telling criminals: "The profits are going to drop, you need to give up.

"We’ve taken out 10 or 15 really sophisticated handling operations for stolen phones," he revealed, adding the new security measures are "having an effect".

"We increase the jeopardy for the criminals and now the tech companies are stepping up. If you can’t sell the whole phone, people will start breaking it up and selling it for parts. There’s less profit in that.

"This is the first stage in making it a pointless criminal endeavour."

How to turn on ‘Stolen Device Protection’ on an Apple phone:

• Go to Settings, then tap Face ID & Passcode
• Enter your device passcode
• Tap Stolen Device Protection, then turn Stolen Device Protection on
• If your iPhone is stolen, sign in at iCloud.com/find to disable it on any other device and mark it as lost

Speaking last week following an operation that targeted two phone shops in north London, Sir Mark said that the information from Apple will allow officers to build up a global picture of what happens to stolen handsets.

He told reporters: “If we share the data we have on the phone stolen, with the data they have on things like reactivations and future uses of phones, we can get a global picture of phones being stolen, are they being reactivated, are they being broken down for parts, where they’re being exported to in the world.

“We’re already seeing, whereas a few months ago the majority of stolen phones were being reactivated because of security flaws, now with the security improvements it’s the minority being reactivated, that means it’s harder for criminals to profit, that will help bring down the crime further.”

The Met has some of the highest rates per thousand people of personal robbery and theft from the person in England and Wales, among which phones are a “significant” problem.

The international trade in stolen phones is worth millions of dollars, with a device stolen in London worth more in countries like China because it has none of the government restrictions put in place by authorities there.

In the UK, the Met has seen adverts on Snapchat offering children as much as £380 to steal a single iPhone, with a bonus of £100 for stealing 10.

Sir Mark Rowley said: “I gave an ultimatum to tech firms – take urgent steps to prevent stolen phones from being resold and reused, or we will call on Government to step in and legislate.

“For the first time, we are routinely sharing intelligence on stolen devices, building a joint picture of how these phones move and whether they reappear in circulation.

“That partnership is already making a difference.

"If stolen phones cannot be reactivated, their value collapses, and so does the incentive to steal them.

“We are driving up the risk for offenders while cutting off the reward.”

The Met has written to the Home Secretary asking for legislation to make phone companies publish data on stolen devices and whether they are reconnected, and to enforce measures to make stolen devices unusable.

It said that in the 12 months from June 2025 to May 2026 the number of thefts and robberies where phones were stolen fell by 14,000, a reduction of 18% on the previous year, and that the first five months of this year saw 6,700 fewer, a drop of 20.6%.

Westminster, where between 69% and 72% of thefts from the person and personal robberies each week involve phones, has seen a reduction of 45.8% so far this calendar year.

At a conference on phone theft in March, the Met called for anti-theft protection to be switched on by default, stolen phones to be rendered unusable, and better access to IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) data to make it easier to return devices to their owners.

Figures released under Freedom of Information legislation show only a fraction of devices taken in London are returned to their owners.

Between 2017 and February 27 2024, a total 587,498 phones were stolen in London excluding the City, 13,998 of which were recovered, and 573,500 were not.

The force also solves one of the smallest proportion of these offences compared with others in England and Wales.

In the year to the end of December 2025, 6.9% of personal robbery cases ended with a suspect being identified and dealt with, while the rate was 0.9% for theft from the person.