Apparently, iPhone theft is a big enough problem in San Francisco that police have come up with a special solution:
…these cops are taking a different approach than just running after iPhone robbers and cuffing them. Instead, they are going after the buyers of the stolen products, in a scheme that they call “cutting the head off the snake”. San Francisco Police Captain Joe Garrity says that if the iPhone thieves aren’t able to sell their goods, there’s no market for them.
That sounds reasonable. Instead of going after iPhone thieves one at a time, they’re going to try to shut down the professional fences who create the market. That actually sounds reasonably intelli… Oh. I see. That’s not what they’re doing at all.
In the scheme, an undercover cop, Tom Lee, dresses up as a normal civilian and speaks like the buyers that he is targeting. He has worked at an Apple retail store before, so he knows all of the lingo of persuading people to purchase his goods. When approaching a buyer, he confirms that the iPhone he is selling is stolen, and instead of offering a price for the phone, he asks the potential buyer to make an offer.
Once the buyer offers to purchase the phone, and begins the transaction process, Lee signals nearby undercover officers to come in and arrest the buyer. With this scheme, the police officers are poisoning the market for stolen electronic goods and making would-be buyers think twice before making an illegal transaction.
Ah, so instead of going after grab-and-run street thieves who steal iPhones one at a time, they’re going after ordinary folks who are willing to buy phones from total strangers one at a time. I assume San Francisco police have decided to do this because all arrests count the same in their activity reports, and this way involves less running.
I have no idea if this constitutes entrapment, but it sure sounds like a colossal waste of time that doesn’t do a damned thing to stop crime. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Just read what lawyer George Gascon has to say:
[Gascon] states that these operations “yield little deterrence” and don’t really lower iPhone thefts in the city. Instead, he believes that these sting operations fuel the fire for more iPhone thefts. He says,
“The numbers don’t appear to be abating at all. This is like a drug war — the more arrests you make for drug use, the more drug use seems to go on.”
Oops, I hope I didn’t give you the impression that Gascon was a criminal defense lawyer. He’s not. He’s a San Francisco District Attorney. Yeah. It’s a really dumb way to fight crime.
(Hat tip:@sergiopereira)
Leave a Reply