SACRAMENTO — Pushing aggressively ahead of other states, California on Thursday moved closer to requiring that all new smartphones come equipped with a “kill switch” that renders the device useless if stolen or lost.

Senate Bill 962, authored by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and championed by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and other law-enforcement authorities, easily cleared the Assembly on a 53-20 vote. The Senate has already passed the bill but needs to sign off on a few Assembly amendments before sending it to Gov. Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign it into law.

Leno believes the California bill could become a national template and drive down smartphone thefts and robberies — which in recent years have become an urban plague. “Because of the size of our market and what we have seen in the past with other issues, it becomes the way the nation operates,” Leno said.

Brown has not yet commented on the bill. But Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who co-sponsored the proposed legislation with Leno, said: “It would be hard for me to imagine him vetoing this bill because it’s such a common-sense consumer measure.

“No one should be subject to being mugged or robbed because they do what every one of us do, which is walking and talking with a smartphone in our hand, or sitting on a BART train or at a cafe with our phone. It’s part of our daily lives.”

The bill requires that any smartphone manufactured after July 1, 2015, and is then sold in California include software or hardware — or both — allowing the phone to be shut down by an authorized user after the phone is stolen or lost.

Once that happens, the phone becomes inoperable and useless to thieves. Leno said if it is later retrieved by the owner, or mistakenly shut down, the bill requires that the kill switch will be reversible. However, there will be no guarantee that any information stored on the smartphone will still be there.

In the past year, Consumer Reports says, smartphone-related crimes have nearly doubled nationwide. About 3.1 million devices were stolen in 2013, up from 1.6 million in 2012. Based on those numbers, a Creighton University study estimates, mandatory kill switches on smartphones would save consumers more than $3 billion nationwide.

Leno’s bill is similar to one Minnesota passed into law in May that applies to smartphones and tablets. But some industry analysts characterize that effort as weaker than California’s because it does not require technology to be installed as a default setting in either device. Instead, the Minnesota law allows consumers to decide if they want to “opt in” to the technology.

“If you’re going to do something like this (bill), turn it on and make it the default,” said Ken Dulaney, a vice president and analyst for Gartner Research with expertise in smartphones and tablets.

Dulaney said most people buy a phone and “just live with it the way it’s set up when they buy it.” The opt-in measure Minnesota has passed requires the buyer to remember to turn on the kill switch feature, and a lot of consumers might not take the time to do that, he said.

Many Republicans in the California Legislature, however, oppose the bill.

“This is another example of California thinking it knows better than our technology innovators and the customers they serve in the state,” said Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno. “There is an implication in this bill, an implication that I think is laughable, that Californians are too lazy or inept to know what they want, how to find it, how to use it, to secure their own devices.”

But Leno said he was insistent that the kill switch be a default setting.

“In order for this technology to be effective, it must be pervasive, and it must be ubiquitous, or the criminal might still feel there is benefit in stealing your phone,” he said.

SB 962 is supported by the California District Attorneys Association, California Police Chiefs Association and California Sheriffs Association. In addition, tech and wireless companies such as Apple, AT&T, Blackberry, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Verizon have all removed earlier opposition to the bill.

CTIA, a wireless trade association, announced early this year that it would “voluntarily” implement theft-deterrent technology on new phones starting in 2015. But kill switch advocates said that was an inadequate solution because consumers would have to find, download and activate the solution themselves.

A spokeswoman for the group said she was disappointed by Thursday’s vote.

“The safety and security of wireless users is the wireless industry’s top priority, and we’ve taken significant actions to provide consumers with the tools and information needed to help deter smartphone theft,” said Jamie Hastings, vice president, external and state affairs for CTIA.

Hastings pointed to stolen-phone databases, consumer education campaigns and anti-theft apps. She said state-by-state technology mandates would ultimately stifle innovation.

Gartner’s Dulaney said there is also concern within the industry that companies could lose the revenue they receive from smartphone insurance policies.

He acknowledged CTIA’s concern about hackers breaking into people’s smartphone software and activating the kill switch, ruining the phone for the consumers.

“But I think that is a rare occurrence,” he said.