The integration of kill switches has dropped smartphone theft in the U.S. and in London. Because of this, many are encouraging users to activate their kill switches.

There is 22 percent decrease in smartphone theft in San Francisco; 16 percent down in New York; and 40 percent down in London. With these statistics, the leaders of these regions have formed a lobby to introduce this feature to users who are not aware of the kill switch advantages yet.

Samsung, Google and Apple smartphones already have this feature. This is expected to be rolled out in Microsoft phones as well.

Attorney George Gascon from the San Francisco District said this innovation is the best feature to be rolled out in smartphones since it prevents the end-users to be targets of violent crimes.

Smartphones are considered to be a utility and a luxury at the same time so possessing smartphones has become a trigger for theft criminals to attack.

With the kill switch, the user or the service provider of that certain smartphone will now have the ability to shut down the device to the point of it being useless to the theft who aims to use or sell it to the black market.

In case the smartphone will be recovered, the user will just need an ID and a password for reactivation.

Because of the affectivity of the feature, it was reported that users may even suggest a law that would force smartphone manufacturers to install this security add-on before the device is sold.

Minnesota has already acted upon this request and has passed a legislation in 2014 requiring for smartphones to have a kill switch feature. The implementation of said law started this July.