San Francisco DA: Anti-theft law results in huge drop in stolen phones

Enlarge / San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, seen here in 2014. (credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images News)

San Francisco's district attorney says that a California state law mandating "theft-deterring technological solutions" for smartphones has resulted in a precipitous drop in such robberies.

In a press release sent to reporters on Thursday, George Gascon said that since the law went into effect on July 1, 2015, smartphone-related robberies have fallen 22 percent from 2015 to 2016. When measured from the peak in 2013, "overall robberies involving smartphones have declined an astonishing 50 percent."

"The prevalence of these crimes made it evident early on that enforcement and prosecution were not sufficient tools to reduce the violence on our streets," Gascon said in the statement. "Because of this hard-fought legislation, stealing a smartphone is no longer worth the trouble, and that means the devices we use every day no longer make us targets for violent crime."

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