A district attorney from the city of San Francisco said that the new iOS 7's anti-theft feature works well against thieves and snatchers.

Previous reports said that the first testers of Apple's new Activation Lock feature were government officials such as Geroge Gascon, the Bay Area district attorney. He supported the new feature, saying that the iOS 7 had "clear improvements" towards security and possibly reducing crime rates.

Together with Gascon, New York Attorney General Eric Schinderman partnered with Northern California Regional Intelligence Center to conduct tests of Apple's Activation Lock. The tech titan included this new feature to bring tighter security on the smartphone. This came after police reports which suggested that 'Apple picking' was the fastest growing street crime in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Samsung Electronics also provided their new Samsung Galaxy S4's new Lojack security feature for testing.

This security testing was part of the larger Secure Our Smartphone program of the government.

The alarming rise of smartphone theft prompted tech titans to upgrade and append security features on their products. These stolen phones mostly make up the black market which thrives on resale of stolen gadgets. According to reports, almost 10,000 smartphones were stolen each month in London, while 113 units were stolen per minute in New York.