London Mayor again demands mobile phone vendors make devices less desirable to steal as knife crime soars

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has again blamed mobile phone manufacturers for the 35 per cent rise in knife crime in London.

When challenged by Mark Austin of Sky News on why knife crime is on the rise in the capital, Khan said:

“The biggest personal robbery is of mobile phones. We know 20 or 30 years ago car manufacturers managed to reduce the theft of car stereos, reduce the thefts of the TomToms from cars by designing away the possibility of doing so”.

Khan’s comments came on the same da a teenage boy was knifed to death at 11:40pm  in a crowd on Primose Hill who had gathered to watch the New Year’s Eve fireworks display. A 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of murdering Harry Pitman on New Year’s Eve has been released on bail, the Metropolitan Police have said.

This was the second time Khan has cited the mobile phone industry for a rise in knife crime. Four months ago he and Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley demanded  the industry emulateb  car manufacturers, who worked with police to reduce the thefts of car radios and sat navs by integrating them into vehicle dashboards.