A bill that would have required smart phones to have a “kill switch” allowing consumers to remotely render the devices inoperable in the event of theft reportedly fell just shy of passing in the State Senate on April 24.
Senate Bill 962 (SB 962) sought to have the kill switch technology installed on every mobile device manufactured and sold within California as of next year. The proposed law also would have given consumers the ability to opt-out of having an operational kill switch on their respective smart phones.
Law enforcement groups were reportedly in favor of SB 962, which was sponsored by San Francisco State Senator Mark Leno.
However, opponents reportedly said there was no need to have a law on the books requiring mobile devices to have kill switches when smart phone manufacturers were already installing the technology as industry standard.
Leno told the Sacramento Bee earlier today that mobile device manufacturers did not have any incentive to voluntarily incorporate kill switch technology into their respective products, even though the capacity to install such technology currently exists.
“Technological solutions that render stolen mobile communications devices useless already exist, but the industry has been slow to adopt them,” SB 962 stated.
SB 962 cited a Federal Communications Commission statistic that estimated between 30 and 40 percent of all robberies in several major U.S. cities were connected to smart phone thefts.
“Many of these robberies often turn violent with some resulting in the loss of life,” Leno’s bill stated.
According to Consumer Reports, an estimated 1.6 million people were victimized for their smart phones on 2012. A New York Times study claimed “113 smart phones are lost or stolen every minute in the United States.”
Here in Los Angeles, the LAPD reported a 12 percent increase in smart phone theft in 2012.
Leno stated in his bill that the replacement of lost or stolen mobile devices was an estimated $30 billion industry in 2012.
“Industry publications indicate that the four largest providers of commercial mobile radio services made an estimated $7.8 billion from theft and loss insurance products in 2013,” SB 962 stated.
There are 40 State Senators in California; only 21 votes were needed for the bill to pass.
