Cops giving mobile phone thieves a run for their money

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: The city police have recently made many breakthroughs in mobile theft cases. They have put in place a technology to block the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number of a stolen mobile phone and later track the accused while recovering the phone.

A police officer from Koramangala police station told News Trail, “It was once true that an IMEI number of mobile phones could help the police trace it in case it went missing or get stolen. However, with the enhancement of technology, crooks have certain devices that can change the IMEI number and it is a major concern that such tools are easily available in the grey markets.”

This officer had recently arrested two thieves and recovered 30 mobile phones from them. The Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) is an online portal developed by the Union government’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in order to track down stolen phones after rendering them almost useless to the criminal.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Raman Gupta said that the city police have been testing the portal since September this year. “With the help of the CEIR portal, the police have been able to block about 1,250 stolen phones which have led to positive results. Around 476 phones had SIM cards inserted into them as thieves might have attempted to utilise them,” he said.

The senior official also said that the new portal even alerts the cops when a SIM is inserted into a different device. This information regarding the SIM card enables the authorities to track the stolen item or thief. Bengaluru is the third city after Delhi and Mumbai to adopt the CEIR system, Raman Gupta said.

“However we are working on a system that will be different from other cities by ascertaining the genuineness of the ownership of the devices,” he added. DoT developed CEIR to curtail the counterfeit mobile phone market and discourage mobile phone theft, protect consumer interest, and facilitate law enforcement authorities for lawful interception.

It wants CEIR to connect to the IMEI database of all the mobile phone service providers. CEIR acts as a central system for all network operators to share details regarding blacklisted mobile devices so that these devices do not work in other networks, even if the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card in the device is changed.