Bad guys beware

BY MARSHA L. MELNICHAK

Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006

An online system used to identify, record and recover stolen property could stop Fayetteville police from having to sift through hundreds of pawn slips by hand when a theft is reported and should decrease recovery time, according to Fayetteville police Lt. Mike Reynolds.

The Fayetteville Police Department is proposing an amendment to city code that would require Fayetteville’s pawn shops to report daily pawn transactions over the Internet.

The system the Fayetteville Police Department proposes to use is called l. e. a. d. s. online. It describes itself as "the nation’s largest web-based system used by law enforcement to investigate crimes involving property — from burglary/theft to narcotics and homicide."

If approved by the city council, the Internet search system will help police investigations, save the department time, increase efficiency, serve as a deterrent for criminal activity as it becomes known, and help the pawn brokers, too, according to Reynolds.

Clint Gober of Mountain Man Supplies and Pawn agrees. "It’s going to have a bunch of advantages," he said. "When it gets all hooked up the way it’s supposed to, our computer will automatically e-mail it to them. And it automatically puts it into their system so they don’t have to manually key all that stuff in everyday. It’s really going to lighten the workload on all of us in the long run. It’s just something we’ve all been looking forward to," Gober said.

Reynolds explained how the system could help speed investigations. "At the end of each business day, we will be able to go in and search the transactions that occurred on that day. So, if you’re a victim of a crime today, by 5, 6, 7 o’clock today, whatever time they enter that into the system, we’ll be able to search and say, OK, you were a victim of a crime here and it was pawned at 4 o’clock today. It’s a lot more efficient," he said. "If you’re the victim of a crime, and you have a piece of property stolen, I’m confident our recovery time will decrease," Reynolds said.

All five Fayetteville pawn brokers already submit paper pawn slips daily to the records division of the police department, in accordance with current city code dating back to the mid 1960s. The slips are then entered manually into the department’s computer system.

More than 3,000 have been entered so far this year.

The number of items listed by police has decreased over the years because their reporting system has changed. According to Detective Leonard Graves, the department no longer lists pawned items which can’t be identified, such as those without serial numbers or general descriptions like "5 gold rings." "Doing it this way, you don’t get the full description like you would with the new system," said Graves.

The detective counted 63 pawn slips filed with the department May 3. He estimated entering the information from those slips would take three to five hours minimum and said they represent a usual daily count. "You can see where that becomes somewhat time consuming and also gobbles up some of our resources," said Reynolds. "Then you have time constraints. These start to pile up on a daily basis and the clerks that enter these have higher priorities and duties they have to tend to. Some of these items may not get entered for four to seven days," he said.

When a theft or another crime involving property occurs, somebody has to go through the backlog. "We get a call and [a detective is] thumbing through pages and pages of pawn slips. Where this new program, if we’re able to go in that direction, would enable us to enter that property item and do a computer search and it will come up within seconds. It will save a lot of time," said Reynolds.

Another benefit of the system, according to police, is a wider search.

Most suspects, said Reynolds, commit crimes in one jurisdiction, then pawn the item in another for fear of being detected.

If there’s no luck finding a stolen item in Fayetteville’s computer listings or by thumbing through the pawn slips, police start calling other police departments to ask if the item is in their pawn lists. "You have to anticipate where you think these people are pawning these items," said Reynolds.

Once again, it’s time sensitive.

On the other hand, pawn brokers throughout the country supply information daily to l. e. a. d. s online.

Little Rock, North Little Rock, Pulaski and Benton counties and Conway are among Arkansas users of the program now. Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma departments are also listed on the company’s Web site as having participating departments. "All it’s going to do is take the information that we’ve been giving them already and put it out on a broader spectrum," said Gober.

During a trial of the computer system, Fayetteville police saw for themselves the value of that extended reach. Washington County had had several burglaries in which guns were stolen. "We accessed the names of the suspects and it showed their pawns all the way up into Missouri. We were able to help [county law enforcers] by giving them at least four or five pawn shops where these guys had pawned," said Graves.

Tim Collier of Little Rock, owner of Pacer Ltd., which has pawn shops there and in Fayetteville, is also a proponent of the idea in general and l. e. a. d. s. online in particular. "Large police departments are using it because of the efficiency of it and the time involved. You report on a daily basis. You just download your files and the next day the police have access to those files if they’re researching a case where merchandise was stolen. It is a good thing," he said.

Reynolds said that Fayetteville police recover several hundred items every year. The most common recoveries are construction property, DVDs and X-box and video games, he said. "Pawn shops are legitimate businesses," he said. "Unfortunately, a small percentage of thieves and drug abusers do come in to support their habits and use the pawn shops for illegitimate purposes. They go and steal from citizens and they’ll take that property and pawn it in order to receive cash in return."

According to Bob Benedict of the National Pawnbrokers Association, an estimated 20 to 30 million middle-class consumers obtain short-term loans from pawnbrokers. These loans average $60 nationwide. "The industry is proud that nationwide less than 1 percent of all pawned items are determined to be stolen. Pawnbrokers are trained to look for suspicious activities to avoid costly mistakes. If an item is determined to be stolen, the pawnbroker becomes a victim as well, losing the money loaned plus the merchandise," he said.

His reports are reflected in the comments of local pawn brokers. "Probably less than half of one percent" try to pawn stolen goods, according to Gober. "It’s a real, real, real minimal figure. It’s really not a problem at all for us." "There are some people crazy enough to steal something and just pawn it, but very few," said Nancy Shepherd, coowner, with her husband, of Big Al’s Pawn Shop.

The most common theft issue, she said, is when kids steal from their parents and pawn an item. When that happens, parents have to decide whether to press charges or buy it back if they want it. "Some people still have the attitude that if it’s in a pawn shop it’s stolen. That’s not true. That is not true at all. It’s got a bad reputation for nothing," Shepherd said. "They’re not dumps and they’re not dives. Actually, pawn shops were the first banks."

She wants to learn more about the l. e. a. d. s. online system but said what she has heard sounds OK. "We don’t like to take stolen items. We’re the ones that get stuck with losing the money," she said.

Shepherd and Gober both indicated that they serve a regular clientele.

Gober said about 70 to 80 percent of Mountain Man’s pawn customers are seen weekly or monthly.

Shepherd said most of Big Al’s customers are average working people and construction workers. "I have a lot of people that come in here that have money that come in here and buy stuff. Even pawn stuff. Everybody gets in a bind once in awhile, you know," said Shepherd. "I’m not saying we don’t get [stolen items] now and again, because we do. But we have to have a picture ID and all this kind of stuff. So it helps throw the little rotten turkeys in jail when we do get them. Most of the stuff is as good as gold, it really is. We don’t get much theft in here," she said.

Reynolds told the city council at its agenda setting session last week that four of Fayetteville’s five pawn shops already have the computer equipment needed to participate in the program.

The only costs he sees a business incurring are the computer, a software program and access to the Internet and most of the companies have that already, he said. "We feel that’s a minimal cost and it will save them money in the long run by deterring crime in their business," Reynolds said.

The l. e. a. d. s. online Web site promises businesses no change in point-of-sale processes, a simplified reporting process and no cost to the business. "Use whatever software you darn well please. We’ll work with it," they say on the web site.

William Dillard of Golddust Pawn in Fayetteville said any changes in the reporting system would be no big deal. "It doesn’t mean anything different than what we’re doing right now," he said.

Reynolds said the change would be good for everyone concerned. "I think it’s not only a valuable tool for law enforcement and pawn shop owners," he said, "because it helps us strengthen an even stronger partnership with them; but it’s also going to be a valuable resource for the community here in Fayetteville."