Thieves beware: Program tracks stolen items

by: DAVID HARPER World Staff Writer
7/22/2007

A new program being sampled in Tulsa could be bad news for local thieves. The Tulsa Police Department has signed up for a trial run with LeadsOnline, a privately based investigative system that can help law enforcement officers find stolen property just by using their computers.

The service features more than 130 million property records received by the nation's pawnshops, secondhand stores, scrap metal recyclers and even eBay records. The information is continually updated, and the company says stolen property can be found in less than one second. Tulsa Police Detective James McClaughry said property recovery "has not been given the importance that it deserves."

But beyond its importance to the victims of property crimes, finding stolen property can have benefits in other types of cases, such as homicides, where theft might be part of a bigger investigative puzzle, he said. Tulsa's trial run with LeadsOnline began on June 21, and McClaughry is working on a proposal that would suggest ways, such as grant money, that Tulsa could afford to subscribe to the service.

McClaughry, who works the burglary squad's pawn detail, said that without the service, about 40 to 50 stolen items are recovered by Tulsa police every month. The potential to find stolen goods with the service, he said, is "exponential." The majority of local pawn shops do a good job of providing data to the Tulsa Police Department that lead to the recovery of stolen goods, he said. But the nationwide service would provide an advantage in finding items that are pawned outside the Tulsa metropolitan area, particularly in other states, he said.

McClaughry said "we get phone calls every day" from law enforcement personnel in other jurisdictions who have found items that were stolen in Tulsa. But that reactive rather than proactive way of doing things makes local law enforcement dependent on what police elsewhere are doing, he said. LeadsOnline reports that about 700 law enforcement agencies nationwide -- including 20 in Oklahoma -- subscribe to the service.

Stillwater Police Department crime analyst Judy Stanbery called LeadsOnline a "wonderful investigative tool" that she uses every day to attempt to find stolen property. Her department's first experience with the service came in November 2004, when tools stolen by a Stillwater man were found in Oklahoma City, she said. Since then, as many as 20 cases have been solved in Stillwater by using LeadsOnline, Stanbery said. Through the service, she said, investigators can search for items pawned by anyone anywhere in the United States as long as the pawn shop is participating in the program.

The company says more than 3,000 stores nationwide are part of the LeadsOnline system, with more being added daily. Stanbery said Stillwater police will be notified by the service when a local person pawns an item. Before LeadsOnline, Stanbery said, "we were simply at the grace of the jurisdictional agency where the item was pawned. They might contact us. Then again, they might not."

In Muskogee, the service was integral in solving a string of jewelry thefts that stretched across two states -- Oklahoma and Texas -- and seven stores. The thieves were tracked through LeadsOnline, and 75 percent of the property was recovered.

Muskogee Police Sgt. Lonnie Bemo said the case would not have been cracked without LeadsOnline. "It wouldn't have happened," he said. Several months ago, there was some talk of Muskogee not renewing its participation in the program because of its cost. But Bemo said he and a few other officers "raised Cain" and let it be known how important the service was in their work. "We were saying, 'You don't understand how much this helps us,' " he said.