{"id":98159,"date":"2026-09-08T16:46:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/london-police-use-tech-to-tackle-masked-phone-snatchers\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T16:46:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:46:06","slug":"london-police-use-tech-to-tackle-masked-phone-snatchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/london-police-use-tech-to-tackle-masked-phone-snatchers\/","title":{"rendered":"London police use tech to tackle masked phone snatchers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><em>London<\/em> \u2014 Images of masked men riding along London&#8217;s streets on mopeds or electric bikes and snatching phones straight out of the hand of unsuspecting tourists and locals have gone viral in recent years. The criminals have essentially taken advantage of new, quick but quiet transport technology to get a leg up on police.<\/p>\n<p>The brazen robberies became such a problem in the U.K. capital that London&#8217;s Metropolitan Police (the Met) developed a special task force \u2014   the Interceptors \u2014   specifically to combat the two-wheeled bandits. Nearly three years after the unit was established, police data indicate a positive downward trend.<\/p>\n<p>During 2024, at the height of the phone snatching trend, there were 80,000 such offenses across London. As of July this year, 35,000 phones had been snatched, according to official statistics from the Met.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Police officials attribute that downward trend to the Interceptors. The specialist officers are trained in tactical pursuit and they operate across central London, specifically targeting phone thieves.<\/p>\n<h2>Cops and robbers, and drones and e-bikes<\/h2>\n<p>Taking a cue from their targets, the Interceptors use a combination of assertive on-the-ground policing and technology, including sophisticated cameras, drones and even officers on their own e-bikes, to track down and stop the thieves in their tracks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They have focused on the central parts of London where tourists are ever-present, and where phone theft has been most frequent.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed__float-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\" data-ads=\"{\" extrawordcount=\"\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/09\/08\/49bcd1c2-8b2d-45ca-9081-d40f8fb26462\/thumbnail\/620x413\/cf842cb19a64d99747e95f97632e5968\/london-phone-snatching-2228267172.jpg#\" alt=\"Phone Theft Warning Message \" height=\"413\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/09\/08\/49bcd1c2-8b2d-45ca-9081-d40f8fb26462\/thumbnail\/620x413\/cf842cb19a64d99747e95f97632e5968\/london-phone-snatching-2228267172.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/09\/08\/49bcd1c2-8b2d-45ca-9081-d40f8fb26462\/thumbnail\/1240x826\/756a2e9776edea27b468f0ee3e12ca0a\/london-phone-snatching-2228267172.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">A phone user walks past a message on a sidewalk on Oxford Street in central London warning people of phone snatching crime, as part of a &#8220;Mind the Grab&#8221; initiative by local government, police and a technology retailer, Aug. 7, 2025, in London, England.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Richard Baker\/In Pictures\/Getty<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Dramatic police vehicle dash camera video shared with CBS News by the Met shows one of the techniques used by the Interceptors: crashing their own cars or e-bikes right into the suspected thieves to knock them off their wheels.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We brought in new technology such as e-bikes \u2026 we brought in drones, we brought in Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras. We&#8217;ve brought in all different levels of technology to hone down on how these criminals are operating,&#8221; Commander Andy Featherstone, the Met&#8217;s lead officer on phone theft, told CBS News.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said when a report comes in that a phone has been stolen, &#8220;the drone can access the location in a matter of seconds,&#8221; and then &#8220;you&#8217;ve got the eye in the sky, as it were.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve then got our Interceptors who are on the ground, and they can pursue and intercept the criminal in a much more safe way than perhaps before, where they would need to be in line of sight to do it and to be able to keep up with them to know where they&#8217;re going,&#8221; Featherstone said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>CBS News went along for a ride with the Interceptors and saw officers make two arrests after license plate recognition technology flagged a couple of mopeds with links to suspected crimes.<\/p>\n<p>One of the arrests came after a minor driving a moped failed to stop when officers turned their lights on. A check by officers revealed that the young man had been suspected of phone snatching in London&#8217;s Ladbroke Grove area just days earlier.<\/p>\n<h2>The bigger picture, and a bigger solution<\/h2>\n<p>Commander Featherstone told CBS News there are criminal networks behind some of the phone snatching gangs, and that London&#8217;s police are becoming more effective at tracing the crimes to their roots.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed__float-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\" data-ads=\"{\" extrawordcount=\"\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/09\/08\/8ed06bff-ebcf-43a2-bb72-553bfa54ded8\/thumbnail\/620x417\/13ba2d863a47b977b4edabb8e72b6562\/london-phone-snatching-2263069737.jpg#\" alt=\"City of London Police raid \" height=\"417\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/09\/08\/8ed06bff-ebcf-43a2-bb72-553bfa54ded8\/thumbnail\/620x417\/13ba2d863a47b977b4edabb8e72b6562\/london-phone-snatching-2263069737.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/09\/08\/8ed06bff-ebcf-43a2-bb72-553bfa54ded8\/thumbnail\/1240x834\/c5e646fb0381604544a2a716df7f019e\/london-phone-snatching-2263069737.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">City of London Police officers are seen during a raid of a property in London used by a suspected member of a phone snatching gang, Feb. 26, 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                PA Wire\/PA Images\/Getty<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;We discovered that there was an export market here,&#8221; he said, adding that many of the stolen devices end up in North Africa or Asia, and China in particular, &#8220;where huge amounts of these phones are going there to be broken down as parts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>British police are now working with American tech giants including Apple and Alphabet to crack down on phone &#8220;jailbreaking&#8221; \u2014   hacking into the operating system to make a device usable by a new, unauthorized owner \u2014 to develop <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/iphone-thefts-down-thanks-to-apple-kill-switch\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">technology<\/a><\/span> that ensures stolen devices are useless to anyone but their owner.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you remove the value of a stolen phone in the secondhand market, that is when we&#8217;ll really break the back of this problem,&#8221; Featherstone said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<p class=\"content__meta--contributors\">\n<p>                                  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/team\/joanne-stocker\/\" class=\"byline__author__link\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Joanne  Stocker<\/a><\/p>\n<p>        contributed to this report.\n    <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">More from CBS News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     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out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[377,2796,1058,3624,2755,690],"class_list":["post-98159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-britain","tag-cellphones","tag-london","tag-robbery","tag-smartphone","tag-united-kingdom"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>London police use tech to tackle masked phone snatchers - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Police say fewer people in London are getting their phones stolen by criminals speeding by on bikes and mopeds thanks to a dedicated task force with an &amp;quot;eye in the sky.&amp;quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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