SHOTLIST:AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLYWashington - Dec. 3, 20121. Set up shots of news conference2. SOUNDBITE: Mayor Vincent Gray / Washington, D.C."If your phone is stolen, you can either call your carrier or you can go online to be able to get essentially the phone disabled."3. SOUNDBITE: Chief Cathy Lanier / Metropolitan Police"Well, I talked to my colleagues in most of the major cities. When we pulled this initiative together back in February, I reached out to all the major city chiefs, so about 65 different cities. They all signed on and did the resolution through major city chiefs. So we're all seeing the same problem. We also reached out to transit authority police officers. It's even more difficult for them because it's so easy to flee, you know, a train as the doors are closing and grab someone phone. So we saw that all across the United States every city was having the same problem. So everybody was frustrated. So I'd say, yes, everybody is concentrating on trying to safeguard you know people's property when it comes to these electronic devices. This is not the end of the battle, by any means."4. Wide shot ground up to podium5. SOUNDBITE: Chief Cathy Lanier / Metropolitan Police"There was two commitments the cell industry made to us. And the first commitment was the deadline of Oct. 31st that each individual carrier would have their own database. They met that and several of them actually came early. Came in early. The second commitment which will be later in 2013 is they will merge those databases."6. SOUNDBITE: Cathy Lanier / Metropolitan Police"I will have to say, you know, I deal with my own technology challenges here. What's involved in consolidating databases I don't really know. But I think given the fact within less than 6 months they've turned around and created the initial databases to let us brick these phones after years of really of trying to get us where we need to be, I can't take shots at them right now. The technology part of this is probably what's taking so long."STORYLINE:District of Columbia officials say they're taking steps to deter cellphone thefts.Mayor Vincent Gray and Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Monday that residents whose phones are stolen can now call their carriers and have them remotely disconnected. The goal is to make the phone useless for anyone looking to steal it or sell it on the black market. The news follows the announcement last April that major wireless carriers had agreed to disable phones after they had been reported stolen. A new website, www.brickit.dc.gov , offers robbery prevention tips and a link to a Federal Communications Commission website that lists the numbers of major carriers.Lanier says dozens of extra officers will be patrolling major shopping areas across the city during the holiday season.