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The Governor of California has signed a historic piece of legislation mandating that every smartphone sold in the state must be equipped with a kill switch that can render the device useless if stolen.
Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill on Monday which will affect any smartphone manufactured on or after July 1st, 2015 and sold in California.
The authorized user of a smartphone may elect to disable or opt out of enabling the technology at any time, but the technology must still be available to them on their phone.
Senate Bill 962 was proposed by state senator Mark Leno and endorsed by many law enforcement officials as they hope it will curb cellphone theft in cities such as San Francisco.
“California has just put smartphone thieves on notice,” said Senator Leno. “Starting next year, all smartphones sold in California, and most likely every other state in the union, will come equipped with theft deterrent technology when they purchase new phones. Our efforts will effectively wipe out the incentive to steal smartphones and curb this crime of convenience, which is fueling street crime and violence within our communities.”
According to American Consumer Reports the number of victims of smartphone thefts in the states has nearly doubled from 1.6 million to 3.1 million between 2012 and 2013. In San Francisco 67 per cent of all robberies involve the theft of a mobile device and in Oakland that number is as high as 75 per cent.
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