Kill switch bill aims to stop mobile device theft

With a growing number of California residents becoming victims of smartphone, and other digital mobile device, robbery state senator Mark Leno is trying to pass a bill that would render the devices inoperable once reported stolen. This cutting edge bill, called the kill switch bill, would make stolen phones virtually useless to the people that stole them, or the people that have received the stolen device.

In San Francisco, nearly sixty seven percent of all robberies are smartphone, or other similar mobile device related. In Oakland, CA. the number rises to around seventy five percent. This bill would require cell phone companies to incorporate the programming into their mobile devices that can be triggered remotely. Leno hopes that if the bill gets pushed through that it will provide a deterrent for would be robbers that are trying to make an easy buck by stealing from unwitting victims. Leno, at a press conference in San Francisco promoting the bill, said, “This is a crime of convenience, and if we end the convenience, we end the crime,”

Stiff opposition is anticipated from smartphone manufacturers having to install such software into their products since many of these companies benefit from smartphone theft indirectly.