The Met is going after mobile phone thieves with officers empowered to stop and search anyone they suspect the smuggling stolen phones, armed with brand new technology.

The rather gloriously named ”Apollo” system scans the phone’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) code and checks it against a database of stolen phones.  An effective upgrade of the previous system, a world-weary copper staring over imaginary glasses and asking “Are you sure this is your phone sir?”

If your phone is stolen you can report it immediately on immobilise.com, an online service which can instantly register any property as illegally absent.  A test in the Ealing borough has already led to four arrests and the recovery of almost five hundred phones (so those guys were pretty busy.)  Of course it’s only a matter of time until thieves adapt to the new technology, but even then any phones with it’s IMEI peeled off will be suspicious enough to warrant further investigation.

Expect to see Apollo spreading out over the city, cracking down on the roaring mobile theft market.  With such high value, easy portability, and relatively painless cracking and exporting, smartphones are among the highest value-per-unit goods outside of narcotics.  It’s good to see the police bringing modern equipment to bear on this very modern problem.