Mayor outlines major crackdown on mobile phone theft with new mobile phone theft Command Cell and £4.5m more investment

•  Proposed new Command Cell to coordinate intelligence and respond to phone theft, robbery and other crimes in the West End
• With record investment from City Hall, new figures from the Met reveal 10,000 fewer mobile phones stolen in the last year – but the Mayor and Police want to do more to tackle mobile phone theft
• Additional investment will fund more enforcement blitzes and action against shops that sell stolen mobile phones
• The Mayor believes that ‘far too many Londoners have been the victim of phone theft and we need to redouble our efforts to stamp it out’

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced his intention to invest an additional £4.5m in this year’s Budget for a major new crackdown on mobile phone theft in the capital. This includes a proposal to set up a new mobile phone Command Cell to coordinate intelligence and respond to phone theft and robbery in the West End.

Latest police data shows that robberies are down 46 per cent in key hotspots in London and thefts are down by more than a quarter, due to investment from the Mayor. Record funding from the Mayor has doubled the number of police officers in the West End leading to a 25 per cent reduction in theft.

The Metropolitan Police has today revealed that mobile phone theft in London has fallen from 81,365 in 2024 to around 71,391 in 2025 – a drop of 12.3 per cent. This new data shows that there have been 10,000 fewer mobile phones stolen in the last year, compared to the year before.

The Mayor wants to go further in eliminating the scourge of mobile phone theft as part of ongoing work from City Hall and the Metropolitan Police to make London’s streets safer. The Mayor recognises the personal impact of high-volume crime such as mobile phone theft and is proposing additional funding for the Metropolitan Police in his final draft Budget to make the capital a no-go-area for thieves and robbers.

The proposed new mobile phone Command Cell would be physically located in the West End and coordinate activity and provide real-time response to incidents help crack down on all types of crime, including phone theft. The new funding will also allow the Met to push ahead with a package of measures to further tackle phone theft. This includes more enforcement blitzes, pro-active targeting of known offenders, and the use of drones and new specialist police trained to use e-bikes to pursue suspects in the West End.

The Mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit will also receive new funding for its Reducing Robbery programme to protect young people from being victims around schools and in key hot-spots, and the new funding will also help Trading Standards and the Met to create a Stolen Phone Retail Taskforce to crack down on shops that buy and sell stolen phones and support more enforcement activity.

This latest City Hall investment will build on the huge success of the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Reckoning - an intelligence-led Metropolitan Police initiative focusing on Organised Criminal Groups (OCGs) responsible for the theft and handling of large volumes of devices, stolen through various methods including personal robbery.

So far Operation Reckoning has disrupted a major criminal network suspected to have smuggled up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China and responsible for up to 40 per cent of phones stolen in London. The ongoing clampdown, which sees the Met using drones and specialised, Sur-Ron E-bikes has seen hundreds of criminals arrested with thousand handsets of seized.

Sadiq visited Charing Cross police station in the West End to see first-hand the work the Met are doing to tackle phone theft and robbers at all levels as part of Operation Reckoning. During a four-week blitz, officers made 248 arrests related to phone theft and seized about 770 stolen phones, while a further 122 people were arrested on other offences as part of the wider operation.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “We’re taking bold action to make the West End and the rest of London a no-go area for phone thieves.

“Far too many Londoners have been the victim of phone theft and I’m determined to stamp it out.

“We have made real progress reducing high volume crime – but I recognise the personal impact of mobile phone theft and how awful it is when someone’s photographs, contacts, messages and personal information is stolen.

“I’m pleased to propose an additional £4.5m to support the Metropolitan Police smash the phone gangs – with a new Police Command Cell focussed on taking out gang bosses as well as robbers and snatchers.

“This funding will be invested in more zero-tolerance enforcement blitzes, and new technology like drones and Sur-Ron bikes which are turbo-charging the Met’s effort to bear down and be tough on mobile phone crime and make London’s streets safer.”

Commander Andrew Featherstone, the Met’s lead for tackling phone theft, said: “We understand phone theft is a major concern for Londoners and that’s why our officers are relentlessly focused on tackling it head-on.

“Local officers and specialist units are deploying cutting-edge technology – including drones and Sur-Ron e-bikes – to identify and arrest suspects quickly.

“These tactics are delivering results. Over the past year, we’ve made hundreds of arrests and recovered tens of thousands of stolen phones – resulting in 10,000 fewer victims suffering the stress and disruption caused by phone theft.

“Londoners deserve to feel safe, and we will keep fighting back against the thieves and criminal gangs fuelling this crime."

In December, alongside the Metropolitan Commissioner, the Mayor announced enhanced ‘winter nights’ policing in hotspot areas across the capital. Since then each hotspot - Camden, Croydon, Shoreditch and the West End - has seen crime reductions:

Theft has dropped by 1,278 offences compared with the three year average, showing a 26 per cent fall. Robbery of personal property has decreased by 269 offences, a reduction of 46 per cent. Violence with injury has fallen by 159 offences, representing a 33 per cent improvement.

The £4.5m to tackle mobile phone theft will be proposed in the Mayor’s final draft Budget, published on Wednesday, February 18.