Met steps up stop and search with mobile phone scanner

*#06#

Which is easier to forge? a label under the battery, or the output of typing *#06# into the phone?

I say they need to (at least be able to) check both.

Fairly invasive

To scan the IMEI barcode I reckon most phones need the battery out, which is to say you have to affect its operation and turn it off.

Is there reasonable suspicion of a phone being stolen due to it being possessed by someone who has been randomly stopped and searched?

Sure you can do *#06# but that's not the point.

So....

Mr Plod stops me for no apparent reason and demands that I take the battery out of my phone so he can check the ID? What happens if I refuse, what if its not convenient for me to do so? Are they going to arrest me for being in possession of a phone which the only reason they suspect might be stolen is because I refuse to shut it down and take the battery out? Stalin and Hitler would be right at home in modern day London.

BTW - has anyone tried taking the back cover off the G1? Its a complete bugger and each time I do it I'm worried I'm going to snap something off. Even the T-Mobile store had to have about 5 goes so they could scan it before sending it away for repair.

In the absence of pre-existing or genuine concern about ownership of the phone...

...this is the absolute epitome of a fishing expedition.

FAIL

As useful as a chocolate teapot as soon as the theives realise and start making new IMEI barcode stickers.

And not likely to get beyond t'big smoke since the rest of the uk isn't under constant terror alert.

They could alway stick to Iphones

OR ......

DA DAA DAAHHHHHHHH

peel off the sticker !!!!

i dont disagree with it tbh, but it would annoy me having to pull the battery out of my phone

Check the barcode?

Isn't it lucky that criminals don't have the technology to forge barcodes.

Presumably we now have the new offence of failing to produce a mobile phone on the feeble excuse that you aren't carrying one. Obviously suspicious - either you're lying and a criminal, or trying to avoid being tracked so must be a terrorist.

Of course there's no such crime on the statute books, but that's hardly going to slow plod down any more than the absence of a law against taking photographs.

They are likeley going to be told to sod off

Windows mobile phone here, so thats going to be my open apps, anything I've not saved et all lost so they can inconvience me.

One more reason NOT to go near London, as if I needed one.

And as others have pointed out, *#06# Yup, even works on an HTC 'doze phone.

Lets see. Keyboard wedge barcode scanner - £34

Netbook £160

GPRS Modem £30

PHP/Whatever form to search a central database, few £100

Bet your bottom dollar the price tag on this was £500k +

@ Cristophe - "new offence of failing to produce"

I refer m'learned friends to the following article on El Reg:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/10/mobile_phone_tracking/

"Lack of traffic data is what becomes suspicious. There are already two documented cases in Europe where not carrying a mobile phone was considered one of the grounds for arrest."

Where does it end?

Excuse me sir, we would just like to scan the IMEI on your phone to see if it's stolen. It's just a quick check won't take two minutes, surely you won't mind.

Excuse me sir, we would just like to read the serial number on your sun glasses to see if they are stolen.....

Excuse me sir, we would just like to scan the RFID in your Calvin Kleins because we think that your skids are nicked.

Excuse me sir, we would just like to take your DNA to see if you are a criminal..

(Knock knock) excuse me sir, I couldn't help noticing that your front door was locked and we just wanted to take a look around your house to see if we could find any stolen items.

(BANG BANG SMASH) Get on the floor you fucker, something here is stolen and no fucker is going anywhere until we find it.

(Nudges you awake at night) Take him away.

How is this not fishing? The police should respond to actual complaints not go poking around in peoples lives.

It's My Electronic Id and I'll hide it if I want to

The more I think about this the sillier it is. The tiny little 2D barcode is easily "accidentally" scratched so as to be unreadable, and all phones give up their IMEI in response to a keyboard command anyway.

Either this device is pure fiction, a la television detector van, or, as Neil 4 says, the Met have been taken for mugs.

Alternatively, It may be an excuse to spend some time alone with a suspect's phone extracting the call logs under the pretext of checking to see if it's stolen.

Re: *#06#

Presently thieves have to forge the *#06. This for many phone models is trivial and there are plenty of programs to do that floating around the black market. As a result, there are plenty of phones where the IMEI in the flash is forged, while the one on the phone is not.

So much for 48 hours to disable the phone.

Anyway, all this will do is to make people destroy the IMEI label on the phone. Not having an IMEI sticker is not a crime so the police will not be able to proudly demonstrate phone recovery statistics for very long.

RE: *#06#

Plod: "Hexcuse me young lad whip out that battery so I may scan your IMEI barcode with my mighty barcode scanner with lightening bolt stickers and my taser strapped to it."

Me: "Ok."

Plod: "Hmm the IMEI sticker isn't there..."

Me: "Yeah it fell off, sorry about that."

Plod: "Ah ha! Put in the battery so I can type *#60# so I can catch you, you thieving ignoramus!"

Me: "Ok."

Plod: "Ah right, could you enter your security pin please?"

Me: "I've forgot it right now, sorry about that."

Plod: "Hmmmm........... WATCH OUT HE HAS A CAMERA ON THAT PHONE!!! BZZZZZZZZZZZZTTT"

@Anonymous Coward 14:51

"Anyway, all this will do is to make people destroy the IMEI label on the phone. Not having an IMEI sticker is not a crime so the police will not be able to proudly demonstrate phone recovery statistics for very long."

It might not be now, but give it a week...

re #06#

I have a phone that has been heavily tampered with by Orange. entering the code above simply displays a message asking me to try again.

I lived and grew up in ealing, it used to be such a sensible place.

Stats

Hi,

I suspect that most of the "stop & search" recovery are when they stop and search individual matching the description of the owner of the phone, a few minutes after being called.

At that point the color of the t-shirt is probably far more useful than the IMEI number, as this one won't be in the Recipero database for at least a few hours.

On the other hand any IMEI not triggering the Recipro db will be added next to your details in the Met database (only if you are driving a car, otherwise you have no obligation to give out your details).

About time to distribute "Stop&Search / Your rights cards" all around... Time to react!

Phone registration by force, at last!

"Steve" is a nice law abiding chap, with a young family and good job.

Steve likes his privacy.

Steve has an unregistered SIM + handset.

Steve is harassed by one of the prick coppers falling behind on his arrest targets. (There are a few good ones left, despite the government's best efforts)

Steve's phone is scanned, and thanks to a recent amendment to the IMEI scanning law all his dialled and incoming phone numbers are trawled for naughty people, as well as mined for suspect call patterns.

Now Steve needs a new SIM and handset to maintain his privacy.

Hmm

I suppose the problem with typing in the IMEI is the plod then has to manually enter it into their device and records (Imagine having your phone confiscated for a fat fingered plod making a typo!)

I have a Blackberry Storm and I'm often on call, with all the security encryption and policies on it rebooting it is a 20 minute job and when I drop it and the battery falls out it's VERY annoying.

That said if the IMEI sticker is gone and a user forgets their blackberry password (happens a lot!) what then? do they get arrested and hauled down the nick or forced to enter the incorrect password 5 times to wipe the device (2 hour job) so they can then get in and check the IMEI?

Will it be like not handing over encryption keys? default 3 years in jail?

Interesting times.

At least I now have a use for the 349 old phones in our cupboard! if I see them doing this in London I may just keep walking past in my tench coat and with a big bag until the stop me and have to scan em all :)

Spare me a thought....

...it'll be rubber glove time for me!

I don't own a mobile, me and the other 4 people on the planet who don't own one, will be marched down the cop-shop and questioned for 4 hours about failure to produce a mobile on demand! Then a quick cavity search to make sure I'm not lying!

Another question, does this include mobile broadband sticks too? They have IMEI codes on them, I usually carry a laptop with a PAYG MB stick, so I am well and truly stuffed!

Re: Steve Evans

"Sure it looks suspicious, but we still have innocent until proven guilty in this country..."

Sir, you should warn us before you type something so funny it makes me laugh loudly in front of co-workers.

There's something they've forgotten...

A copper with a phone in one hand and a barcode reader in the other can't smack chummy with his truncheon, or whip out his taser. Advantage crims.

How long before the PCC has to deal with complaints of people being beaten senseless with a barcode reader ?

Mine's the one with the barcode printer in the left pocket, ta...

Here is a contraversial opinion

Maybe this will be of some use in the fight against crime and make a positive difference to the lives of Londoners......

.....mines the one with the missing mobile....

And I thought the madness was at peak level already

I won't share all my data (and they can't tell me there will be no registration and tracking) just because some plod thinks gave him a funny look. Why don't they just put a sign that say "stay away!". Nuckin' futs. At some point, someone must have messed up terrorist/tourist, and since it's too embarrassing to admit that by now they simply go all the way – till even the last tourist is exterminated.

i for one...

approve of the new mobile register.

The problem with removing the barcode...

...is that this will quickly become recognized evidence that you have something to hide and are therefore a criminal.

Now, if you were to print out a brand new label with a barcode of a known non-stolen phone...

@ Check the barcode?

Printing barcodes is absolutely trivial, and I'm willing to bet the scanner isn't limited to a specific type so you can make a mess of it. Just add an extra digit to the barcord which you don't put on the visible IMEI and it'll probably keel over.

This could be fun if they try this one on me. I'm a foreigner, and live in another country than my nationality. I could kick such a diplomatically complex stink it'll cost them months to sort it out, and I'd enjoy every second of it.

Quote Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 12: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."

Do you feel lucky, punk? Mwhoohahahahahaaa...

Sounds scary

Thank heavens i live in New Zealand where we have very little of this sort of rot.

I have to say the more I read of this sort of thing the less I desire to visit Blighty - I think I'll stay here in the sunshine instead.

IMEI

In fact, removing the sticker won't help the thieves, as the IMEI number is actually stored in the phone OS, and by simply typing *#06# on the handset will confirm it.

Like most kit, there are ways to avoid this I don't want to tell the "perps" how, as remember they use the net too - lets not hand the info on a plate to them!

Hopefully stuff like this will make phone theft a thing of the past

Did you know that...

... it is against the law to remove the IMEI sticker from the back of your mobile phone?

So will this affect criminals - really?

Found from http://www.unlockme.co.uk/blacklist.html:

So now that handsets are blacklisted on all networks what do the criminals do to get around this? They find ways to change handset IMEI numbers! Home Secretary David Blunkett introduced a new law making re-programming IMEI numbers punishable by up to five years in jail. This is in the Mobile Phones (Reprogramming) Act 2002. This new law became active on the 4th October 2002 . (this new law does not effect handset unlocking).

Never the less it is possible to change IMEI numbers on certain handsets. So if an individual obtains a blacklisted handset, they can change the IMEI number and the handset will then work again!!

*sigh*

So they never learn. People can just change the IMEI number. After all they have stolen the phone so committing other crimes isn't really going to bother them is it?

At this rate...

... we're all about 18 months from being tattooed/RFID chipped and obliged to itemise (via a private database) all items of property we own. Possessing naughty items/items not on your personal list/borrowed items/not having items you state you carry but which might be useful in making a bomb (or getting stones out of horses hooves) will make you liable to all sorts of trendy New Labour punishments, a generally stern finger wagging and a guaranteed appearance on ITVs new late night hit "look who's been carrying/not carrying things around" in which someone with a vaguely Sean Bean-like voice sarcastically suggests you're getting what you deserve. You bloody deviant.

They'd deploy an arsehole scanner only there'd be too many false positives from the coppers carrying it.

Stop and fish.

Has anyone considered doctoring their phone such that it breaks when Constable nobhead tries to open it?

You broke my phone and I'd like a new one, please. Come on, come on, pay up, I haven't got all day.

Anyway police don't have carte-blanche to do what the fuck they like. Believe it or not they operate under a code of practice, which code of practice gives examples of what counts as reasonable suspicion. "Having a phone" is not one such example.

cf. http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/operational-policing/pace-code-a?view=Binary

A summary of which legalistic guff is (cf. http://www.yourrights.org.uk/yourrights/the-rights-of-suspects/stop-and-search/reasonable-grounds-for-suspicion.html):

"There must be some basis for the officer’s belief, related to you personally, which can be considered and evaluated by an objective third person. Mere suspicion based on hunch or instinct might justify observation but cannot justify a search."

A hunch such as "Well lots of people around here have stolen phones" isn't good enough; they much have a bloody good idea that /you/ have a stolen phone.

No suspicion, no search. No likee? Take it up with my solicitor: here's his number. Good-day, cunstable.