WB: Police uses device to catch Mobile Phone Thieves

Kolkata, Apr 23: The city police will introduce a device to detect a mobile phone within 24 hours of a complaint received by the agency of its theft.

"The device will help us to detect location of the mobile phone and it will be easier for us to recover the same soon after receiving a complaint'' Deputy Commissioner of Police (detective department) Gyanwant Singh said.

''In most cases now the complainants are unable to provide us necessary information like IMEI number, which is crucial for investigation and recovery. Failure to provide the unique 15-digit IMEI number can be linked to ignorance about the number.'' he said.

Kolkata Police have tied up with an IT company to introduce the technology in the city. However, he refused to name the company, which has prepared the device.

With the number of cellphone connections reaching some 3.5 million mark, the cases of cellphone theft were on the rise.

A Kolkata Police data shows that about 300 complaints are lodged every month with 48 police stations in the city.

A service provider said, ''Earlier, we used to receive 10-12 calls a day, but now on an average we receive 50 to 60 such calls per day asking us to block connection due to mobile phone theft.'' The number of complaints has increased, but the recovery rate is only around 32 to 40 per cent, Mr Singh said.

According to mobile phone manufacturers, the recovery rate should be much higher as all the cell phones have unique international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) numbers.

A Nokia shop employee in the city said, ''A lot of people do not know about the IMEI, which is stored in the handset. We generally tell our customers to preserve the number. But preserving the IMEI is not enough to ensure recovery of cellphones, as the police treat these complaints lightly.''

UNI