A new study from Creighton University suggests that "kill switch" technology, if able to reduce smartphone thefts, can save consumers $2.5 billion each year.
William Duckworth, statistics professor at the university, found that consumers spend almost $500 million each year replacing stolen phones and about $2 billion each year buying premium cell phone insurance through wireless carriers, according to The Huffington Post.
Law enforcement officials say that criminals would no longer have a reason to steal phones if the devices had a kill switch feature that let victims disable them.
Duckworth also conducted a survey of 1,200 smartphone owners and found if phone thefts were no longer an issue, owners would buy less expensive phone insurance coverage from companies such as Apple or SquareTrade that don't cover theft or loss, The Huffington Post reported.
"If theft becomes a non-issue then only the most paranoid person would pay the extra money for premium insurance to cover theft," Duckworth said in an interview.
In the survey, 99 percent of the respondents said wireless carriers should have the kill switch option for their phones. A total of 83 percent believed that the kill switch would bring down the number of phone robberies, and 93 percent believed that Americans should not have to pay extra fees for the feature, Top Tech News reported.
Almost 1.6 million phones were stolen in the U.S. in 2012, The Huffington Post reported. Phone thefts have also become more violent, resulting in several murders. New York Attorney General Eric Scheiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon have pushed for manufacturers to develop technology that is better able to prevent these crimes.
"In addition to saving lives, the common sense theft deterrent features we have been advocating for will also help save consumers money," Scheiderman and Gascon said about the study.
"Manufacturers and carriers need to put public safety before corporate profits and stop this violent epidemic, which has put millions of smartphone users at risk," they said.
Both houses of Congress have introduced legislation requiring a kill switch feature for everyone phone in the U.S. However, no votes have taken place yet.
