NEWS RELEASE

PROPERTY CRIME RECOVERY INVESTIGATORS OF ALABAMA ENDORSE LEADSONLINE CRIME-FIGHTING TECHNOLOGY

Nationwide system revolutionizes investigation of crimes involving property

DALLAS, Jan. 19, 2004 – LeadsOnline, a Web-based criminal investigation system enabling law enforcement investigators to solve crimes involving property through a nationwide Internet database, has been officially endorsed by the Property Crime Recovery Investigators of Alabama (PCRIA). The PCRIA represents more than 300 property crime investigators throughout the state from more than 100 law enforcement agencies.

By a majority vote of its membership, the PCRIA selected LeadsOnline as its choice for an automated data collection and analysis system to which pawn and secondhand stores throughout the state upload their daily transactions. The LeadsOnline service is free of charge to pawn and secondhand store owners, and the system allows investigators to instantly search for property involved in crimes ranging from burglary to homicide at the touch of a fingertip.

“This is an important issue to our members,” said Paul Logan, PCRIA president. “LeadsOnline is a tool that allows the pawn industry and law enforcement to work together cooperatively in stopping habitual property crime offenders who not only victimize the people they steal from, but also pawn store operators.”

Alabama law enforcement agencies utilizing the LeadsOnline system currently include the Atalla Police Department, Elba Police Department, Elmore County Sheriff’s Office, Etowah County Sheriff’s Office, Gadsden Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Montgomery Police Department, Moody Police Department, Prattville Police Department, Rainbow City Police Department and Tuscaloosa Police Department. In addition, 40 other agencies throughout the state are participating in a trial program with the system.

Since the acquisition of the LeadsOnline investigative system, police departments statewide have shown a dramatic increase in crimes solved, property recovered and arrests made. “After the purchase of the LeadsOnline service, the Police Department/Pawn Shop Detail investigated 29 initial cases during the months of June and July, which resulted in the recovery of $17,240 in assorted property,” said Cpl. B.F. Harrison of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. “Of the 29 initial cases, 24 were cleared by arrest, which is a 35 percent increase in total number of arrests for property crimes through the Pawn Shop Detail in a two-month period. LeadsOnline has been a wonderful tool and a much-needed asset.”

Traditionally, crime investigators have been relegated to the far more tedious and ineffective process of making multiple phone calls to other jurisdictions, personally visiting stores that accept merchandise from the public, sorting through stacks of paper records and engaging in cumbersome, error-prone data entry. With LeadsOnline, the window of time between a store transaction and the availability of useful investigative data literally can be shortened to two seconds instead of two or more months, dramatically increasing the likelihood of arrest and property recovery. Additionally, law enforcement is able to focus on the investigation of crimes, rather than spending ever-scarce tax dollars on the often unsuccessful and time-consuming task of collecting and retyping store tickets.

Jeff Hudson, president of the Alabama Pawnbrokers Association, said that LeadsOnline is an ideal solution in fostering a cooperative relationship between law enforcement and business owners.

“Not only is LeadsOnline extremely easy to use for pawn store owners and law enforcement investigators, but also it allows investigators to search for property in pawn stores in a way that does not infringe upon the privacy of law-abiding customers, who constitute the vast majority of people who conduct business with pawn stores,” Hudson said.

Nationwide, about 600 law enforcement agencies are using the LeadsOnline system to gain instant access to its centralized Internet database, which currently contains more than 30 million property transaction records conducted by more than 1,700 pawn and secondhand stores throughout the country. LeadsOnline is a member of PCRIA, the Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Association of Property Recovery Investigators.