Robbery has fallen from 10 per 1000 to around 6. There are definitely a lot of confounders so Im not trying to claim is was 100% the surveillance but I do think the surveillance contributed to lower violent crime rates.
In any case, recovery rate is the other important metric here especially for justifying a surveillance state, and that has been absolutely terrible.
Robbery is theft using force or the immediate threat of force. The article you linked to says that much of the phone theft is done by pickpocketing.