Cell phone theft in Guyana
Videos have been posted online showing local bandits robbing business places. The bandits go after the cash registers But they also go after customers, robbing them of their money and their cellular phones.
Cell phone theft is a major criminal industry in Guyana. It has increased in recent years because there is always a market for stolen cell phones. A great many persons in Guyana are walking around and using expensive cellular phones that are stolen from someone else.
There are criminals who are posing with expensive cellular phones which they lack the means to buy. It is possible that phones stolen in the United States and Canada may be finding their way into the local market.
Cell phone theft is now a global phenomenon. In the United States alone, it is estimated that one and half million cell phones are stolen each year.
Guyana probably has a higher per capita theft of cell phones than any other country in the world. Almost every single house break-in involves the theft of a cellular phone. A young girl was killed while trying to retrieve her cell phone which was snatched from her. The police are reportedly reopening her case. And as stated before, armed robbers are rummaging through the pockets of victims searching for cell phones.
There are big boys in Guyana who accost younger boys on their way home from school. They take away these poor children’s cellular phones which they need to keep in touch with their parents. It is a sad thing to see school children being robbed like this, and it happens regularly.
Cell phone theft in the United States is now a major crime. The technology exists to arrest this problem. The technology exists to track the whereabouts of phones. The technology also exists to kill devices that are stolen.
The phone companies are resisting having to make this technology publicly available. The pressure is however building, and it is only a matter of time before technology will come to the rescue.
It makes no sense for someone to pay hundreds of United States dollars for a cell phone, only to have it stolen or used by someone else. Eventually, cell phone companies are going to come around to realizing that it makes business sense to employ technologies to track and kill stolen cellular phones.
In fact, in the UK there is concern about the high incidence of phones being smuggled and used in prisons. According to the Daily Mail of August 10, 2016, prison authorities are using technology to help solve this problem because they believe that crimes are being directed from behind bars.
A new technology allows for the prisons to be scanned for cell phone signals. The prison authorities, through these scans, are able to identify the phone numbers of illegal instruments within the prisons and can then apply to the mobile phone companies to disconnect those numbers.
This avoids the prison authorities having to actually find the phones. They simply conduct a scan, and this scan gives them all the numbers in use in the prisons. Having identified the illegal numbers, they then apply to have these numbers deactivated.
Guyana only has two phone companies. These companies give back hundreds of millions to society each year in sponsorship. Almost every major event in Guyana is supported by one or both of these companies.
These companies have to now recognize that cell phone theft is a big industry in Guyana. Customers of the cellular companies are being robbed every day in this country. Reducing cell phone theft will reduce crime significantly
The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company and Digicel should combine their efforts to develop a system that can either track cell phones that are stolen or kill those phones.
Persons who steal cell phones today, simply dispose of the SIM card. This makes tracing these instruments through calls made from them, subsequent to the theft, next to impossible. It has been said, however, that cellular phone companies have the means to still trace a stolen phone, even if the SIM is changed.
Making a report to the police is a long-winded process. People are discouraged from reporting their phone thefts because of the attitude of the police, and the statements and all the paperwork involved in reporting such thefts.
The police have to then apply to the cellular companies, and then conduct tedious investigations to track down a stolen cell phone. Investigations are not always successful because, as stated before, the thieves simply dispose of the SIM cards after they steal the phone.
The cell phone companies can help bring an end to cellular phone theft in Guyana by introducing technologies that would allow for stolen phones to be neutralized. Once a phone is stolen the means should be found to ensure that the phone cannot be used again.
If this happens, crime will be reduced, because there will be less reasons for persons to engage in cell phone theft, which is major contributor to the increase in crime in Guyana. If you cannot use a stolen phone, why steal it?
The mobile companies in Guyana should the introduction of kill switches in phones as a means of contributing to a safer country. If they can offer their customers such a service it will not only help their customers, it will help reduce crime in Guyana.