KILL PHONE ROBBERIES WITH KILL SWITCH

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4. History of Anti-theft Policies
4.1 Mobile Device Theft Deterrence Act
Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) first introduced the Mobile Device Theft Deterrence Act of 2012 (S. 3186). This was the first attempt to address phone crimes on a national scale. Due to the previous failure in 2012, the Mobile Device Theft Deterrence Act was re-introduced by Senator Schumer in 2013. It targeted to criminalize tampering with mobile device identification number as a means to halt the black market for stolen cell phones. There is a unique International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number in every smartphone. This number enables local carriers to block operating device’s network and puts it on blacklist. This bill also sought to impose a 5-year criminal penalty for the alternation of IMEI number. Other than these, there were joint efforts between cell carriers and FCC to create Stolen Cell Phone Registry by November 30, 2012 . This registry would store a list of stolen phones’ International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number. However, this database only worked if thieves didn’t tamper cell phone ID number. In fact, there are many loopholes for thieves to get around with such registry. When cellphones are reported stolen, most phone carriers in United States only deactivate the SIM card by prohibiting access to information stored in the SIM card. This blocks the device from using the existing data on the phone. Yet, SIM card can be easily removed and replaced. Stolen cell phones can be sold in black market even if it is blocked. Therefore, there are a lot more to be done to protect public safety and smartphone crimes.
4.2 Smartphone Theft Prevention Act
The Smartphone Theft Prevention Act (H.R. 4065) was introduced by the House ...

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...nt way of making profits. In fact, the Consumer Reports estimated about 1.6 million cellphones were stolen in United States in 2012 (Duckworth 2013). However, there is a lot of violence involved in phone robberies. Victims are often threatened of violence and some even lost their lives because of a smartphone holding in their hands. A technical kill switch preinstalled in smartphones has proven as an effective deterrent to de-incentivize phone robberies because phones are inoperable once kill switch is activated. 83% of smartphone owners also believe that a kill switch would reduce cell phone theft (Duckworth 2013). Furthermore, phone thefts may add over USD $10,000 to victim’s stolen cell phone bill from roaming (Cleave 2014) . Since many people are victimized in phone robberies, it is undoubtedly necessary to mandate kill switch preinstalled in all smartphones.

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