Pawn shops might join database to fight crime

By JENNIFER AVILLA

05/09/2006 (EXCERPT)

BEAUMONT - Finding stolen property at pawn shops used to be a tedious and drawn-out process.

Officers would pick up about 1,100 loan tickets weekly while a clerk manually processed them into a database. Entries could be as much as two or three months behind.

But a new online system automatically enters the tickets into a national database that can easily be searched instantly by officers to find stolen property in Beaumont - that is, if the local pawn shops want to use the software.

Soon it might not be an option. The City Council is considering an ordinance today that requires pawn shops to upload their daily transactions into the Web-based system, called l.e.a.d.s.online.
"The system is only as good as the information that is put into it," said Capt. Melissa Ownby of the Beaumont Police Department. "If we're going to put this money out, we want to make sure we have full use of it."

The system, which is used by 515 law enforcement agencies in 23 states, can search its database by stolen item, serial number or even by name and nickname of criminals - and not just in Beaumont, but all over the country.

The police department has been using the system of about 2,500 pawn shops and secondhand stores for a month. The cost is about $5,500 for six months of use.

"Manpower-wise, it's a tremendous savings for the city," Ownby said. The software comes at no charge to the stores and is being used by two of the seven Beaumont pawn shops.

The EZ Pawn locations have been using the system for months and had no problem downloading the software, since the national organization uses it in other branches." Our corporation is already set up that way," said Chris Owen, manager of the EZ Pawn branch on College Street. "Every night it just downloads into our system. It actually makes it easier."

In Orange, the police department has been using the system for about six months and all pawn shops voluntarily upload tickets into the system - saving time and money. "You don't have to keep up with pawn tickets anymore," said Sgt. Lynn Arcenaux. "It's a win-win for everybody."

This type of system isn't used only to recover stolen material - it also can help solve violent crimes, which was the case with Orange's Richard Derek Hoffpauir, who pleaded guilty to the capital murder of Christy Marie Goodman in the 2003 high-profile case. San Antonio's l.e.a.d.s. system connected Hoffpauir to a 2.8-carat diamond ring stolen from a home neighboring Goodman's before he kidnapped her.

"It helped us establish a timeline," said Sgt. Jimmy Leboeuf of the Orange County Sheriff's Department, who worked on the case. "It also helped us tie it to a burglary in the neighborhood."