If you believe an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of punishment then you have to be in favor of stop theft classes. The 16 hour Advanced online theft class, keep people from making the decision to steal.

I say this because there has been a surge in the theft of cell phones. This is probably because they are so darned expensive and incredibly cool. As reported in www.nytimes.com.

The fact is cell phone theft is far too common. I have read stories about people who have had two or even three cell phones stolen. In an effort to combat cell phone theft there is a new nationwide database for stolen cellphones which tracks a phone’s unique identifying number to prevent it from being activated, theoretically discouraging thefts. But police officials say the database has not helped stanch the ever-rising numbers of phone thefts, in part because many stolen phones end up overseas, out of the database’s reach, and in part because the identifiers are easily modified.

Perhaps the bigger issue is that carriers and handset makers have little incentive to fix the problem.

Last year the District of Columbia (Washington, DC) reported a record 1,829 cellphones robberies.

Do you think handset makers like Apple should be exploring new technologies that could help prevent theft? Do you think stop theft classes would help? Education is a good thing, but technology has to continue to try and stay one step ahead of would-be thieves.