Seattle police dedicate 24/7 expert to track stolen phones

As the number of mobile phone thefts continues to soar, Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole is dedicating a tech-savvy specialist to help officers track down stolen phones.

The supervisor of SPD’s Technical and Electronic Support Unit will now be available to officers around the clock to guide them through both the technical and legal process of locating a stolen phone.

“With that coming up more and more we need to start addressing it,” says Sgt. Verner O’Quin, head of the Technical and Electronic Support Unit.

While cell phone thefts have been a problem for years, O’Quin says technology has made it easier for law enforcement to zero in on stolen phones.

The issue drew widespread attention recently when Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat wrote about having his car broken into and tracking his stolen phone with Apple’s Find My iPhone app to a van full of suspected car prowlers, only to have police fail to respond and make an arrest in a timely manner.

But O’Quin says it’s not simply a matter of following an app.

“You still have to verify it’s in the van, you still have to get a search warrant if you want to look in the van. Also you need to have backup if you stop a car like that if you think there’s been a crime.”

O’Quin also cautions the accuracy of tracking stolen phones can vary widely depending on the device itself, and its location.

“You can get down to feet and you can be as far as a thousand yards so it definitely depends on the device, how good a signal it’s getting, where it’s at,” he says.

For example, the GPS tracking can’t differentiate elevation. So if a stolen phone ends up in a building with multiple floors, it can be far more difficult for police to track it.

Still, O’Quin says he’s confident more crimes will be solved thanks to the dedicated resources.

The assignment of a dedicated tech-specialist follows a review ordered by the chief of how officers, investigators and 911 dispatchers handle property crime reports.