London police scans on the streets with mobile phone scanner

[Juha-Matti Laurio <juha-matti.laurio () netti fi>]

"People stopped by the police in parts of London are having their phones scanned and instantly checked
against a national database to determine whether they are stolen.

The on-the-spot checks, reminiscent of Police National Computer (PNC) checks for stopped vehicles,
are being trialled by officers in Ealing and Bromley.

A handheld wireless device called Apollo scans the IMEI barcode, usually found underneath a phone's battery*,
and runs the number against the National Mobile Property Register (NMPR), a privately-run database that styles itself 
"the PNC of property".
It gathers data on stolen property from police, insurers, business and the public."
--clip--

More at
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/22/met_apollo/
 
Juha-Matti
_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.