Lived in London for over 40 years. Never let your stuff out of sight for a minute. My foot always goes through a loop on my bag. Had at least two attempts to grab it which was stopped dead by this. I use a knackered looking Osprey daylite plus bag which has straps around the zips that stops people casually having a go at it as well. Mostly no issues in the last 10 years but I know people who are careless and have been done a few times.
My general travel experience, outside the UK, is that if you dress down, use a knackered looking bag and a shitty no brand knackered phone case and people will leave you alone. Passport goes on you in a zipped inner pocket anywhere on the planet. Same with wallet, keys, anything. Never wear anything that indicates you have an iPhone worth nicking. Apple Watch / Airpods make you a target.
Wow, I have to say it's a bit crazy that you have to go through all this effort in what I think of as quite a safe city. I was recently in London for a week of meetings and someone said be careful about having your phone out in case someone snatches it but I thought they were being hyperbolic.
Why isn't there a bigger crackdown on such petty crime? I guess people think they can get away with it, but it feels like one of those creeping issues that might seem small at first but deters important activity (tourism, business relocation, etc.) longterm if not addressed.
> Why isn't there a bigger crackdown on such petty crime?
Many reasons.
1. UK prisons are already overflowing. Even violent criminals like rapists and murderers are only serving half of their sentences. When there were riots recently the government had to let many criminals go early just to make room for rioters. There is basically no room for petty criminals. The police know this which is why they don't even bother arresting petty criminals since they will just be let go free anyway.
2. U.K. police has been underfunded for decades at this point. There were severe cuts under the earlier Tory regime and now under the Labour regime it continues to be underfunded with the police chief suggesting to cut the number of police forces from 43 to 12. At this point the police basically do not care about any property crime since they prioritize violent crimes (rightly in my opinion).
3. British legal system and British society in general has trends that favor increase in crime e.g. loosening of social controls (loss of social stigmas etc) increased movement, freedom of movement (people move around more freely instead of staying in the same village their entire lifetime) lack of tracking, lack of interest in tracking (e.g. London has about same number of CCTV cameras as China yet Chinese government is able to use its camera to track criminals much more effectively than the British).
Could also talk about changes in society (loss of social capital aka Bowling Alone), increased immigration, changes in parenting (single parents etc) but those are topics of discussion for different time.
They routinely get away with it, it's a cottage industry of sorts. See [1].
> Why isn't there a bigger crackdown on such petty crime? I guess people think they can get away with it, but it feels like one of those creeping issues that might seem small at first but deters important activity (tourism, business relocation, etc.) longterm if not addressed.
Because the police don't care, and these crimes are generally impossible to solve.
There are stories of people finding their stolen bicycles, motorbikes or cars, and when informing the police they're told to 'steal it back'.
The phones thieves are generally youths riding around the city on electric bikes, fully balaclava'd up. There's little chance of catching them. Even if they were caught nothing would happen to them.
London has apparently gone to shit since I lived there 5 years ago.
> Because the police don't care, and these crimes are generally impossible to solve.
Because they don't care is correct. These crimes are actually trivial to solve. The devices are tracked, there is a clear money trail, people are doing this routinely as a business.
As you said people routinely track their stolen property and nothing is done about it.
They don't care because it's "petty" crime. And they will "get to it after they solve all the murders."
Yes. The police have the ability to find and arrest the perpetrators pretty quickly, if they prioritise it. There was a phone theft which (unusually) turned into a stabbing/slashing a couple of years ago when the victim fought back. Perpetrators escaped on bikes before police arrived, but were arrested only 3 or 4 days later.
One thing that really struck me in Dubai: I watched a group of girls leave their designer purses and phones unattended on a table. They just left the coffee shop and came back over 10 minutes later.
I had a similar experience in Korea recently. Going for lunch in a shopping mall, many people were routinely placing their phones on tables to "reserve" them while they walked off (out of sight of their phones/tables) to collect their food. I couldn't quite believe it!
From your and other comments in the thread, it sounds like the main deterrence then is 1) that it's likely you'll be caught and 2) that if caught, the punishment will be quite harsh.
I wonder if the UK and other cities are struggling more with the first or second
I've travelled to a majority of countries across the globe (exploration geophysics, mostly in the air or deep backcountry, rarely in major cities) and Dubai is another city within a city location; two state; the rich are rich and have no need to steal, or are brazen about it, while the poor are segregated, curfewed and routinely castigated.
These are not places were you want to fall the wrong side of the invisible barrier.
This dynamic exists in many expensive locations around the world, but Dubai stands out for its remarkably low crime rate. Take San Francisco, for instance. More expensive to live and greater wealth inequality, yet riddled with crime.
It isn't the expense; it is the segregation. The poor just aren't allowed to exist or mingle with the rich in Dubai. If you are poor, you are only near the rich while you are at work, performing a job.
What do you mean by that? It's the same kind of segregation that exists in San Francisco: expensive areas are out of reach to those without money. There aren't actual laws enforcing segregation. In fact, it's almost the opposite - it's pretty easy to come and live in Dubai.
I can safely walk around the streets at 2 am in a "bad" neighbourhood in Dubai or Singapore. Can't do the same in most Western cities.
I'd gladly trade a little bit of freedom (the freedom to criticize a government that isn't even mine) in exchange for this massive improvement in security. Apparently a lot of Western entrepreneurs are feeling the same way lately.
On a side note, a friend who used to work in the Dubai Police told me that even they're getting swamped with the rapid increase in population, and even they're getting subjected to budget cuts of late. There used to be a time when part of the police force was even foreign, but those positions were eliminated in favor of a UAE-nationals-only force.
I was encouraged to leave my wallet and phone on the table of time out, while we went and got food. My friends rationale was: there are CCTVs everywhere and thieves are dealt with very harshly. So eff it
Even in Singapore, I recall the protocol being to leave a napkin or whatever at a Hawker Center to indicate the chair/table was taken. Been a few years though.
Being somewhat familiar with both, there are probably areas of both cities that are more and less safe. Without looking at numbers, there are probably areas of NYC that I'd be less inclined to wander into than areas of London. Though, as you say, bias. There are areas of London that were sketchy a few decades back that are pretty gentrified today, especially in East London.
My general travel experience, outside the UK, is that if you dress down, use a knackered looking bag and a shitty no brand knackered phone case and people will leave you alone. Passport goes on you in a zipped inner pocket anywhere on the planet. Same with wallet, keys, anything. Never wear anything that indicates you have an iPhone worth nicking. Apple Watch / Airpods make you a target.
Many people aren't travel savvy. It scares me.