Smartphone thefts are way down. Here’s why.

It’s a tough time to be in the business of stealing smartphones. Apple started letting users clear their data and disable their iPhones remotely in 2013 with its “Find My iPhone” feature, and Android is expected to roll out the function soon. That makes it harder for thieves to do much with a stolen smartphone: If it doesn’t work, it’s not worth an awful lot on the black market. Now, that technology appears to be turning away would-be thieves: A third fewer Americans say they had phones stolen last year compared to 2013, according to a Consumer Reports study released June 11.

The magazine says it tweaked its methodology in the latest study, which could account for some of the change, but that the overall change is still significant. That's what prosecutors and policymakers hoped for as they’ve pushed for so-called “kill switches” to become standard in smartphones. The issue has inspired legislation in Congress (though it hasn’t moved out of committee) and laws in states such as Minnesota and California, particularly as phone thefts soared in recent years. The number of Americans whose phones were stolen doubled between 2012 and 2013, according to the magazine.