London Fights iPhone Gangs With DJI Drones

London’s phone theft crisis has mutated into something colder and more organized. Gangs are recruiting children on Snapchat, offering up to £380 for the latest Apple devices, and sending teenagers out on bikes before school to hunt commuters, as The Guardian reports.

According to the Metropolitan Police, gangs are circulating digital “menus” listing cash rewards by model. An iPhone 16 Max can fetch £380. An iPhone 15 earns £220. An iPhone 12 barely makes £20. Ten phones in one drop can trigger a £100 bonus.

The targets are predictable. Tourists in the West End. Commuters near major transport hubs. Phones snatched in seconds, then handed to a handler arranged through Snapchat.

The Met reports thefts are down 12 percent year over year, to 71,000 incidents. That is progress on paper, but the streets still tell a tense story.

Commissioner Mark Rowley has publicly pressed tech companies, especially Apple, to make stolen devices harder to reset and resell overseas.

Police believe many newer iPhones are being shipped to markets in the Gulf and China, where they are reactivated and flipped for profit. Samsung devices, officers say, are less attractive because they are harder to reuse abroad.

But London is not waiting for Silicon Valley to solve its crime wave.

It is looking up.

Why London Chose DJI Over Skydio

Unlike many U.S. police departments that pivoted away from Chinese drones under political pressure, London is doubling down on DJI.

The Met is deploying DJI Dock systems paired with the DJI Matrice 4TD. These are not hobby toys. They are industrial eyes in the sky, designed for rapid deployment, thermal tracking, and high reliability in dense urban environments.

And here is the uncomfortable truth for some in Washington: the UK does not have the same lobbying machine that pushed Skydio into dominance across U.S. public safety agencies.

In America, policy pressure and federal restrictions squeezed DJI out of many law enforcement budgets. In Britain, procurement decisions are more pragmatic. The Met wants performance, uptime, and cost efficiency. DJI delivers all three.

A DJI Dock can house, charge, and automatically launch a drone within seconds of a call. The Matrice 4TD brings thermal imaging, advanced zoom, and AI assisted tracking.

When a suspect bolts through side streets on an e-bike, the drone does not tire. It does not lose line of sight at the first corner. It climbs, locks on, and feeds live intelligence back to officers on the ground.

This is not theory. It is operational reality in London’s West End, where drones are being used to track known offenders and follow suspects as they attempt to disappear into traffic.

The Met is also deploying Surron e-bikes ridden by trained officers to close the gap on young thieves who rely on speed and agility. Drones above. Electric pursuit below. A coordinated net.

Tech, Courts, and the Political Fight

The technology push does not stop at drones. Live facial recognition is being used to identify repeat offenders. And London Mayor Sadiq Khan has proposed an additional £4.5 million for a new command center focused on dismantling the gangs behind the thefts.

Yet Commissioner Rowley has made it clear that policing alone cannot fix the problem. Courts granting bail to repeat offenders have undermined enforcement efforts. In one case, 12 youths were arrested and charged with phone theft. Some were bailed the next day. Within 24 hours, they were suspected of stealing again.

That revolving door frustrates officers risking their safety in daily pursuits.

But here is where the drone angle matters most.

Drones shift the power balance. They provide evidence. They reduce foot chases. They document patterns. They make it harder for organized handlers to operate in shadows.

And crucially, the Met chose DJI because it works.

In a global drone market fractured by geopolitics, London’s decision is a statement. Operational reliability beat political theater. Performance beat protectionism.

While U.S. agencies navigate restrictions shaped by domestic lobbying and federal bans, the UK police are flying DJI docks and Matrice platforms over one of the busiest cities on earth.

Bold? Yes.

Practical? Absolutely.

The message from London is clear. If gangs are using Snapchat to industrialize street theft, police will use industrial grade drones to hunt them back.

DroneXL’s Take

This is a real world example of how drone policy shapes public safety outcomes. The Met is not interested in brand politics. It wants tools that work under pressure, in rain, in crowded streets, at scale.

DJI’s Dock ecosystem and Matrice 4TD platform are built for that mission profile. The U.S. debate around Chinese drones is far from settled, but London’s streets are showing what happens when agencies prioritize capability over lobbying narratives.

Phone theft in London has become organized, fast, and digitally coordinated. The response is becoming airborne, automated, and data driven.

And right now, it is powered by DJI.

Photo credit: Metropolitan police, DJI.