A “national epidemic” of smartphone theft and robberies has prompted top law enforcement officials from San Francisco and New York to meet with some of the largest U.S. smartphone manufacturers next week.

According to The Associated Press, the “Smartphone Summit” will take place in New York City on June 12, and representatives from Google Inc., Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. And Microsoft Corp. will be in attendance. The summit will urge the companies to create new technology to permanently and quickly disable stolen smartphones, making them worthless to thieves.

In San Francisco, more than half of all robberies involve a cellphone. Two weeks ago, a 27-year-old tourist suffered severe knife wounds to his face and throat after being robbed by two men over his iPhone.

In New York, there was a 40-percent spike in cellphone thefts last year, and authorities have coined the theft of iPhones and other Apple products as “Apple-picking.”

In 2012, the article says, 1.6 million Americans were victims of smartphone theft.