Slashdot Mirror
Apple Now Working With the NYPD To Curb iPhone Thefts
An anonymous reader writes "Back in late 2012, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg attributed the increase in statistical city-wide crime to Apple, noting that thieves had a propensity to target folks using iPhones and iPads. As an illustration of the problem, there were 3,890 more Apple product thefts than in 2012 than there were in 2011. At the time, Mayor Bloomberg's press secretary Marc La Vorgna explained that 'if you just took away the jump in Apple', crime in New York City would have been down year over year. Indeed, the number of major crimes reported in 2011 in NYC came in at 104,948 compared to 108.432 in 2012. If you exclude Apple related thefts from the figures, then the crime rate in 2012 is essentially the same as it was in 2011. In light of that, a new report from the New York Post details that Apple is now working with the NYPD in an effort to curb iPhone and other Apple related thefts."
Why not simply brick any device reported stolen? I understand it's done in other countries (or for other devices).
Give users a free Android 'shell' to disguise their iPhones?
If you only took away the amount of weight I gained from eating deep fried pizzas every meal, I actually lost weight last year!
La Vorgna will now be accused (perhaps correctly, and we could run some stats about that) of blaming Apple for NYC crime. The other headline-that-writes-itself is iPhone Thefts /Finally/ Affect Apple Profits Negatively (The Empire Strikes Back).
These are better than car analogies.
Apple's consumers tend to want to show off the fact that they are Apple consumers. Even their phone & tablet covers have a hole to show off the logo.
My mother taught me not to flash around my valuables, but I doubt you can convince most folks to do this.
I know, they can use square corners for a disguise!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
This is a ridiculous supposition. Are we suppose to believe that the criminals responsible for these thefts were lured into stealing by the flashy Apple gizmos? Or that these criminals would reject crime and find honest work if only New York could rid itself of Apple products?
This is just another example of politicians passing the blame to something else. In this case it's Apple, as blaming Apple for life's ills is in vogue at the moment.
The vast majority of car thefts now involve fuel injection cars. If you don't count those, the crime rate would be down!
Make no mistake, we, the police department, are doing a GREAT job. It's your damn newfangled fuel injection systems that are the problem!
How about just making it require a password to power off, put it in airplane mode, or disable Find My iPhone so you can use find my phone? As it is you can still turn the phone off even if the lock screen is passworded. I don't want to have to enter a PIN every time I unlock my phone, but I also don't want a thief to be able to disable Find My iPhone (such as by turning it off), and I wouldn't mind entering a password on the rare occasions I turn the phone off or put it in airplane mode. Do any Android phones have a feature like that?
I think most thieves know to turn off an iPhone that they've stolen.
From last linked TFA:
One stolen iPad was tracked to the Dominican Republic and recovered with the help of an NYPD intelligence cop assigned to Santo Domingo.
Their own "intelligence" cop in a foreign country? Bloomberg and Kelly are power crazy.
The LAPD were going to have a dedicated department for Android theft but received a C&D Letter from Apple and had to shut it down
From the article: "“This technique of identifying stolen phones by their unique identifiers has been around for a number of years and is technically rather simple — the difficult part has been integrating with law enforcement to track down the stolen devices,” said Kevin Mahaffey co-founder of cellphone security firm Lookout."
It has been possible forever, but the wireless providers don't want to do it because it cuts into their revenue. Not only do they get money from you when you buy a replacement, but they also get money from the @#$@# who stole your phone, or bought it from the $%^$ who did when they sign up for services. There is no way they want to cooperate, unless you pay them a fee to look in their database to find the #$#@$@ using your phone. Then you've got to get the cops to do something about it. It appears that NYPD will because it is easier than catching other criminals.
I guess we should have seen that coming, they already own the Apple Records label too. (Never would have drempt of that happening when they were still making the computers out of wood in the 1970s.)
In exchange, they will want the 'Big Apple' to now be known as the 'iApple', but after mass protests in the city they are forced to compromise to 'Bigipple'...
It's a little like saying if you just ignore all the Toyota thefts the number of cars stolen would go down. They are going for what's popular and easy to move. What's new?
Apple products result in increased crime, you say? Well, the solution is simple - just ban iPhones and iPads.
problem solved
" Indeed, the number of major crimes reported in 2011 in NYC came in at 104,948 compared to 108.432 in 2012."
From 104,948 to around 108.5!
From the Article "The California-based company then informs the NYPD of the device’s current location — and it can track it even if it was reregistered with a different wireless provider."...they then boast how they have tracked a phone to brazil!?
Nobody, no-one concerned that a Apple is tracking their customers, and can do so without their knowledge.
Seriously "Do no evil?"
Apple's consumers tend to want to show off the fact that they are Apple consumers. Even their phone & tablet covers have a hole to show off the logo.
Yeah, and BMW owners like to show off because they don't cover the logos either.
I fail to see how the presence or absence of a hole showing the logo provides evidence in support of your claim. My case has no hole and yet you can still tell by a casual glance that I have an iphone.
I don't care who sees my phone. The iphone isn't a status symbol. Was it ever? Maybe very, very briefly among a tiny crowd (who pretty much all had iphones.) I can't imagine wanting anything to do with someone who thought "Oooh, he has an iphone, he must be important" or other such nonsese. So why would I want to "show off"? In the unlikely event a beautiful woman was actually impressed by my phone, her stupidity would be a huge turn off for me. And if it's not good for that... Well, let's just say there's really no point to it as a status symbol at all.
Of all the people I know, both Apple product owners and not, only ONE person has ever expressed any interest in other's Apple products or showing off his own. He's a poor college kid who is very awkward and gullible. But for some reason I know quite a few people who (like you) make all kinds of wild derogatory generalizations about the owners of these products. Of those, the only ones I respect are the ones who have a principled view regarding things like locked down hardware.
There is wisdom in not taking out your phone in certain places. My ex-BIL returned an iphone he received as a gift because he knew he would be mugged for it in the places he traveled. But there is also wisdom in not being condescending towards large groups of people you don't even know. Maybe your mother should have taught you that.
As an illustration of the problem, there were 3,890 more Apple product thefts than in 2012 than there were in 2011
That sentence is suffering horribly. Please put it out of misery.
ID: the nose did not occur naturally, how would we wear glasses otherwise? (apologies to Voltaire)
Its theft of course but that hardly seems to be the definition of major crime. I would assume assault, murder, rape, robbery (with weapons for instance) would be major crimes.
He came for the 16 oz soda, I did not say anything... yada yada yada, ..he came for the guns ... blah blah .. now he is coming after my iPhone but there is no one ...
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
We are told to believe that guns incite people to violence.
People selectively buy into anything they want to believe in
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Yeah, lets ignore those crimes., Lets just assume that all those iDevices where stolen for private use.
I mean, whats the chance that such an iDevice was stolen to be sold just to get enough to get ... whatever they are hooked on.
In short: If those iDevices would not be available most likely other devices/stuff would be stolen.
In other words, anyone ignoring those stolen iDevices without incoorporating the chance and result of "replacement theft" is either ignorant, or attempting to throw a disrespectfull "look how good we are doing" -sand into the voters eyes.
Are they saying there were no Apple related crimes in 2011?
Cause if there was Apple related crime in 2011, you have to remove that to see exactly what the crime rate did without Apple.
Also, a one year change does not a trend make.
iPhones crash, like every other sufficiently complex device. It's rare (never happened to me) but it does happen, and so they have a hard reset ability. Any such hard reset functionality would nullify the effectiveness of such a feature.
You won't have as many iDevice thefts...
The city with the absolute highest crime rate of one of the most sought after pieces of electronics...also happens to have the most oppressive and restrictive gun laws in the entire country.
I would say I'm sorry, but I'm feeling more like a "tough shit" instead. Maybe next time you won't be so quick to give up your rights.
Have fun in your gun-free zone. Good to hear that's working out so well. I can practically smell the peace and love from here.
that would fix this problem overnight. But we aren't 'allowed' to have our own countries to live in, that would be 'racist', according to our unelected, unseen Jewish 'masters'...
Do YOU know why you think white people shouldn't be allowed to have their own countries?
Obviously 90% at least of the perps of this crime are NON-WHITE.
Who the hell voted this guy in? All it proves is that on average NYers have an IQ of 50? If thew crooks didn't steal iPhones they would find something else. Like necklaces and pendants.
Of course, the bump in crime is Apple's fault for selling them in NYC. The mayor should outlaw iPhone ownership, especially the more expensive and capable versions. It would dovetail nicely with outlawing gun ownership, outlawing the sale of large sodas, and outlawing the use of trans fats.
The copyright-consortium has this deluded idea that every pirated copy is a lost sale and that's where they get their "huge losses" numbers from.
We all know this is bullshit. We all know that just because somebody is will to use a pirated copy of a piece of software or watch a pirated copy of a movie, that does not mean that they would have been willing to pay money for that same thing if that's the only way they could enjoy it.
Now here's the NYC police department using the same kind of logic saying that if iphones/ipads were not so attractive to steal then that number of thefts would simply not have happened. Because, yeah, the thief that seals that icrap wouldn't have stolen anything else if that icrap were not worth stealing, right? Maybe he'd have gotten a real job instead of stealing stuff if icrap weren't worth stealing.
Nice logic there Bloomberg.
Is selling these above average smartphones at premium prices. You may get it "free" with your contract but you pay extra on your contract.
You might even get a contract for the same price for a Galaxy3 or an iPhone5. The iPhone buyer is being ripped off in that exampleif the Galaxy user gets a fair price.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
People who own an iPad or iPhone are being targeted not because the criminal wants those devices but because they would be an easy mark for somebody who potentially has a decent amount of money. Apple products are pricey, nobody will argue that. They are also easy to identify. So targeting a person who has one of those devices as somebody to rob (not only the devices but their personal money too) would be an obvious thing. Even for people who probably aren't the brightest types around.
It's really tough to fight those trolls. The only way some people can rationalize that someone else thinks an iPhone better suits their needs is to accuse them of wanting it only for a status symbol. They actually believe that is why people buy them. The very idea is laughable, but their raging hate for Apple blinds them from the fact that some people find iDevices best. I am one of them. Oh, and my iPad cover DOES NOT have a hole for the icon. My phone is a regular dumb-phone, because that is my choice.
It the correct SIM card is not inside the phone, the phone can't turn on without a password.