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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).
If you only took away the amount of weight I gained from eating deep fried pizzas every meal, I actually lost weight last year!
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.
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.
Apple products result in increased crime, you say? Well, the solution is simple - just ban iPhones and iPads.
I don't think you understand how politics and police in a big city work.
There's the police force that the poor get, the police force that the middle class get, and the police force that the rich get. Generally, when cops come into poor neighborhoods, it's to bash heads. In middle class neighborhoods, you get sympathetic cops who politely explain that they're too busy to investigate your report. In the rich neighborhoods, they drop everything in order to find your missing poodle.
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?"