Anti Mobile Phone Theft
A new pilot scheme is being run by Cumbria police, it is designed to help stamp out the theft of mobile phones and recycle mobile phone fraud.
A handheld device called and Apollo is used to scan the IMEI numbers of mobile phones and displays the registered owner’s information to the police officer.
This technology can also identify stall I bought and MP3 players; it was introduced over a year and a half ago. However the Cumbria force will be trying out the new technology later this month.
The Deputy Chief Constable of Cumbria’s police force is also the president of the Society for the policing of cyberspace, he handed an award to the makers of the Apollo device earlier this week, in order to praise the company and the knowledge its contribution to helping the police fight cyber crime.
He commented that with more sophisticated and expensive technology the attraction to criminals increases exponentially.
He also noted that he was engaged in locating additional way is for police officers to carry out their work more efficiently whilst working within communities. He felt that the trialling of new technologies such as the Apollo would the information that officers had instant access to, which would in turn to speed up arrests and leads to the recovery of more stolen mobile phones.
The business development manager at the company which manufactures the Apollo commented that the cost of some mobile phones were in the four to £500 mark, and as the economy had dipped there had been an increase in the number of falsely reported stolen mobile phones so that users could receive the insurance payouts. He noted that the technology within the handheld device would go some way to allowing the police to identify when these sorts of fraudulent insurance claims had been made, which would cut down on the amount of wasted police time.
