On Monday, Bronx Representative Jose Serrano revealed a proposed legislation that would require mobile phone companies to equip all smartphones with 'kill switches,' a software program that would permanently render the phone useless, New York's CBS said in a report. The program was meant to address the mobile phone theft cases in New York, of which Serrano said had grown into epidemic proportions.
In a press conference, Serrano began, "It is time for smartphone carriers and manufacturers to get serious about protecting the safety and security of their customers.This legislation will ensure that consumers are empowered to protect themselves by rendering their smartphones useless in the hands of criminals. This is the most effective way to deter smartphone theft."
Serrano was accompanied at the press conference by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Police Commissioner William Bratton, among others, who had long wanted to reduce the number of violent incidents resulting from the smartphone thefts. Serrano had said that the smartphone thefts gained notice when 2012 data revealed that for every one of three smartphone thefts, the theft often comes with violence.
Schneiderman added that the legislation was initially a request that authorities had long asked mobile phone companies to do. Bratton chimed in that their request had fallen on deaf ears due to corporate greed, as the five top carriers in the country - AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and US Cellular - refused to accomodate their request. According to San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, the noncooperation might have been due to the loss of revenue mobile phone companies would have should the kill switches replace anti-theft insurance and replacement phones.
Serrano also said in his speech that it was logical for a smartphone to be equipped with a program to disable it permanently. He said, "We call them smartphones because we could do so many things with it, yet we haven't been smart enough to bring it to that point where they can't be used by someone that steals them."
