Police superintendent Michael McNally will tell you it's not an enviable task to be heading the world's first and only national mobile phone crime unit.
Supt McNally, who is a detective in Britain's Metropolitan police force, said he had to work with the constraint that prepaid mobile phone users in Britain need not be registered by their respective telcos, and that Britain had 65 million mobile phone users.
"In the earlier part of this decade, Britain faced a spiralling problem of street crimes such as snatch thefts, muggings and assaults related to mobile phones.
"Between 2001 to 2002, street robberies rose by 28%, as mobile phones were the most saleable commodity in general.
"The UK authorities formed the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit in London, in addition to setting up a database for inter-carrier blocking of stolen or lost handsets," said Supt McNally.
The Star reported on Thursday that Malaysia, emulating the scheme, was looking at developing a national database.
With the system, once a handphone theft victim reports a loss, the mobile phone can be rendered useless until a 15-digit International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) code is entered.
The initiative would involve collaboration among the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Malaysia's mobile service providers, the police, the Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (Fomca) and the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation.
Supt McNally, together with Lt-Col (R) Jack Wraith, the chief executive officer of the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum, were in town to lend their expertise on the subject.
During an interview here, both veterans shared their thoughts on Malaysia's implementation of the system.
"It's going to be a smooth transition as the telcos here are cooperative with government directives," said Lt-Col Wraith.
"Furthermore, the mobile phone platform here in terms of registered users is more comprehensive than that in Britain.
"This is because 60% of mobile phone owners there are prepaid users, and they are not required to register themselves."
But he said operational costs could be high as there were factors like the database's engineering costs, integration to customer relationship management, customer portal and mobile phone crime labs.
Nuemera Malaysia, the company that had submitted a proposal to the Government to develop the database, had briefed Water, Energy and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Lim Keng Yaik on the matter.
Its group president Mohd Noor Amin said the company could implement the database by August.
