Fewer mobile phones are being stolen on trains in Karnataka.
Thefts reported to the Karnataka Railway Police came down from 948 in 2019 to 659 in 2022.
Seven months into 2023, the railway police have received 213 phone theft complaints, which the Superintendent of Police of the Karnataka
Railway Police, Dr Soumyalatha S K, notes is a further decline.
The railway police investigate thefts and all crimes that occur on trains and at railway stations. Soumyalatha attributes the decline in phone thefts to multiple reasons, adding that it is difficult to pinpoint a specific one.
“It could be a combination of greater awareness among people, more patrolling by police officers, and the CEIR portal tracking. Thieves might be aware that once the IMEI number is blocked on the portal, the phone will not work with another SIM card and an immediate alert will be sent to the police when it is switched on,” she explained.
She added that it is not possible to identify which cities or towns see the highest number of phone thefts on trains as the location of the complaint would not mean the location of the theft.
“We have 18 police stations and 25 outposts in railway stations across the state. We register a case where someone files a complaint and transfer it to another station if the theft has occurred in that area,” she said.
However, recovery stands below 50% – between 30.4% and 48.3% — highlighting the tricky nature of recovering stolen phones.
A total of 948 cases were filed in 2019 — the highest in the past five years — of which, 305 phones were recovered. In 2022, the number of cases fell to 659, of which 271 cases were resolved.
The railway police bank on the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) portal to trace stolen phones. They began using it in November-December 2022. Before its adoption, they used the older method of checking IMEI numbers regularly.
Several challenges persist in the recovery of stolen phones, a significant one being that the phones are not switched on or used until perpetrators cross state or national borders or sell the units.
“Most complainants don’t come back to claim their phones… It’s good if they get it back within a month, but it doesn’t make sense for them to wait six months or one year. They would have bought another phone by then,” said Soumyalatha.
Many recovered phones are sent to original owners through railway police constables if they are in other states and cannot get to the station where they initially filed the complaint or the station where the case was transferred to, to collect their phones.
“The constables take a signed statement that the phones have been returned,” she said.