San Francisco’s district attorney says that a California state law mandating "theft-deterring technological solutions" for smartphones has resulted in a precipitous drop in such robberies.

Those measures primarily include a remote kill switch after a phone has been stolen that would allow a phone to be disabled, withstanding even a hard reset. Such a kill switch has become standard in all iPhones ("Activation Lock") and Android phones ("Device Protection") since 2015.

In a press release sent to reporters on Thursday, George Gascón said that since the law went into effect on July 1, 2015, smartphone-related robberies have fallen 22 percent from 2015 to 2016. When measured from the peak in 2013, "overall robberies involving smartphones have declined an astonishing 50 percent."

"The prevalence of these crimes made it evident early on that enforcement and prosecution were not sufficient tools to reduce the violence on our streets," Gascón said in the statement. "Because of this hard-fought legislation, stealing a smartphone is no longer worth the trouble, and that means the devices we use every day no longer make us targets for violent crime."

Anyone who is considering purchasing a second-hand smartphone should consult with https://stolenphonechecker.org first.