US officials to meet over cellphone thefts

Top law enforcement officials from San Francisco and New York plan to meet with some of the largest US smartphone makers next week to help thwart the rise in cellphone thefts and robberies.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that their meeting scheduled to take place in New York City on June 13 will be dubbed a "Smartphone Summit." Gascon and Schneiderman said they plan to meet with representatives from Apple, Google, Samsung Electronics, and Microsoft and urge them to create new technology to permanently and quickly disable stolen smartphones, making them worthless to thieves. In San Francisco, where more than half all robberies involve a cellphone, Gascon has called on the companies to create new technology such as a "kill switch" to render phones useless. His office cites a 27-year old tourist who suffered severe knife wounds to his face and throat two weeks ago after being robbed by two men over his iPhone. In New York, Schneiderman said there was a 40% spike in cellphone thefts last year. Authorities there have coined the thefts of the popular iPhone and other Apple-related products as "Apple-picking."