Reid asks phone-makers to help beat robbers

LONDON, Apr 27 (Reuters) Home Secretary John Reid called for manufacturers of mobile phones to help fight crime, as new figures showed an eight per cent rise in the number of robberies on English streets.

The next generation of personal gadgets like mobiles and MP3 players should focus on being worthless to criminals, he said yesterday.

''I want people to join us in saying to the manufacturers that anti-crime measures are as important as other functions, so that ...

measures to design out crime are given equal prominence in the development of new products,'' Reid added in a statement.

He said 80 percent of stolen phones are now being disabled within two days but warned criminals will move on to MP3 players and Sat-Nav car systems.

Robberies in England and Wales rose to 26,600 during the final quarter of last year compared with the same period in 2005, Home Office figures revealed.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said in a statement that it was ''tackling the issues that drive this crime, eg mobile phone ownership, the behaviour of young people and the vulnerability of key locations''.

Conservative Home Affairs spokesman David Davis blamed the link with drugs for the increase in robberies. Drug offences were up three per cent.

''Drugs not only destroy communities, they undermine our efforts to combat other crime -- particularly street robbery which is fuelled by drugs,'' he said.

The Home Office figures also showed criminal damage was on the increase, rising two per cent to 309,000 cases.

Cases of the most serious violence against the person were down 23 per cent thanks to a change in the rules for recording threats to kill, while the number of sexual offences was 11 percent lower.

Violent incidents resulting in injury dropped 10 per cent.

Cases where no injury was incurred rose nine per cent as a result of a rise in fixed penalty notices for harassment.

Domestic burglary was down three per cent.

The overall level of crime was down two per cent.

The latest British Crime Survey, which measured the perceptions of more than 40,000 people interviewed about their experience of crime during the past year to December, suggested an 11 percent increase in vandalism, but little statistical change for violent crime, burglary or theft.

REUTERS AM VC0940