Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation recently requiring all smartphones sold in the state to come with a “kill switch” to render them inoperable if lost or stolen.

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The bill, signed into law last month, was created in response to an “epidemic” of smartphone thefts in the state. More than 3 million cellphones were stolen last year, according to an NBC story.

A kill switch is software that allows consumers to disable a phone after the device has been reported stolen and reactivate it only with a correct password or personal identification number.

The new law will apply to all smartphones sold in California after July 1, 2015.

“The devices we use every day will no longer make us targets for violent criminals,” said San Francisco County District Attorney George Gascón, who spearheaded the legislation, according to an NBC story.

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Gascón and New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman joined forces to create a coalition of hundreds of law enforcement, public safety and consumer advocates to push the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturers to adopt technology that would allow the devices to be tracked or instantaneously rendered inoperable.

Minnesota passed the nation’s first kill-switch mandate in May, but California’s bill goes further, requiring manufacturers to notify consumers that the technology is available on their phones.

NBC News contributed to this story.

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