The New York City Police Department is strongly encouraging residents to upgrade their Apple iPhone to iOS 7 as soon as possible. Why?
The upgrade, authorities contend, will likely help reduce the rate of iPhone theft or at least the financial or identification-related crimes that can take place after an iPhone is stolen.
The NYPD says that the new security features introduced with iOS 7 are important and may mitigate the impact of smartphone theft in the city.
Over the weekend, officers were seen distributing informational flyers to New Yorkers
Specifically, police hope that iPhone owners will upgrade, which will automatically install Apple’s Activation Lock feature. That security feature keeps a thief from erasing a phone’s data and reactivating it. Instead, the original Apple ID and password used to activate a device are needed to perform such actions or to deactivate Find My iPhone.
According to a report Monday from Apple Insider, New York has a big problem with iPhone theft.
“Between January 1 and September 23 of last year, the city saw a 11,447 recorded thefts of Apple products,” the report reads. In fact, Apple product theft accounted for 14.4 percent of major crimes.
