Death Wish Meets GPS: iPhone Theft Victims Confronting Perps

theodp (442580) writes "Thankfully, no one's gone full-Charles-Bronson yet, but the NY Times reports that victims of smartphone theft are using GPS to take the law into their own hands, paying visits to thieves' homes and demanding the return of their stolen phones. "The emergence of this kind of do-it-yourself justice," writes Ian Lovett, "has stirred worries among law enforcement officials that people are putting themselves in danger, taking disproportionate risks for the sake of an easily replaced item." And while hitting "Find My iPhone" can take you to a thief's doorstep, LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith urges resisting the impulse to do so. "It's just a phone," he said. "it's not worth losing your life over. Let police officers take care of it. We have backup, guns, radio, jackets — all that stuff civilians don't have.""

Comments

Funding

[rsilvergun]

it really comes down to funding. Cops have limited resources, especially after 30 years of budget cuts in the name of "Reduced Bureaucracy" and tax cuts for the rich. Remember when you voted down that 1% sales tax increase? Guess where that money was earmarked for?

So Cops ignore non-violent offenders and focus on the violent ones. Seems when it's Pot heads everyone's OK with that. Yeah, yeah, pot heads don't hurt anyone. Except there's already guys in this thread banging on about how when you investigate one crime you find another....

Want better law enforcement? Raise taxes. Corporate profits and the cash held by the top 1% are both at levels not seen since the 1920s, lets have them pay some of that.