Smartphone 'Kill Switch' Bill Passes California Legislature, Awaits Governor's ...
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Several device manufacturers and wireless carriers withdrew their opposition once the bill was amended to exclude tablets and exempt smartphone models introduced before Jan. 1, 2015, that could not 'reasonably be re-engineered' to incorporate the anti-theft technology.
If the bill is signed into law, manufacturers will have until July 1, 2015, to incorporate the theft deterrent, which users would be asked to turn on when they set up their new devices.
Read More Push is on to get 'kill switch' into smartphones
State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, introduced the bill to address the epidemic of smartphone thefts, which the Federal Communications Commission estimates to account for 30 percent to 40 percent of thefts in major cities.
In San Francisco, more than half of all robberies in 2012 involved the theft of a mobile device, according to the city district attorney's office.
'Our goal is to swiftly take the wind out of the sails of thieves who have made the theft of smartphones one of the most prevalent street crimes in California's big cities,' Leno said in a statement.
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