I speak from total ignorance; I've just read a few of these stories, so take my comments in that context, please.<p>It seems to me that these "locate your device" companies would all do themselves a world of good if they found a way to work with local police departments to allow verification of theft and get past the "we can't help you, no proof of a crime or evidence" walls. If average person calls the police to report the crime, they get rebuffed (and we've seen this multiple times with stories here on HN; they all start by "the cops ignored me, so I tweeted or posted for help"). If there were a verification process where you report the device missing with a possible location, and the cops can easily verify that you do own the device, it has been reported stolen, and the location is in their jurisdiction, it would seem like an easy win for a nearby car to visit location, question suspect, and arrest if necessary, adding a solved crime to their credit.<p>Otherwise, we continue to rely on friends and forum-mates to stalk a thief until we can convice someone, anyone in authority, to help out. This seems dangerous and only works for those with reasonably large, friendly, and distributed followers/social networks<p>I look forward to one of these location companies actually hiring an ex-cop as a "liason" and working out processes to get law enforcement engaged quickly to grab a suspect when much of the work (evidence of theft, location of stolen property, evidence of locations) has already been done.<p>Again, I am not a lawyer, and don't know much about this stuff, just what I've read online, so feel free to correct me if this is really impossible in the US.