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@jasonkoebler @inthehands I’d believe what I read in tea leaves before something about technology that “cops theorize.” I’ve lost track of the number of false news reports I’ve seen about technology concerns from credulous police departments.

Seems far more likely that if they can’t get a cell signal that they’re burning a lot more battery trying to connect to a tower and then running out of juice/overheating and rebooting. But the update explanation conveniently makes it someone else’s fault.

Paul Cantrell

@donw @jasonkoebler Per the article, there may be some innocuous new change in iOS 18 that makes sustained “no signal” conditions trigger a reboot sooner, which is fully compatible with your guess.

(And yes, agreed that “cops notice” is a particularly unreliable form of anecdata.)