Burlington Police hope to use new system to catch property thieves in a web

 

 

September 19, 2007 - 10:43 AM
by Stephanie Kosonen | Argus (excerpt)

Local law enforcement to track stolen goods with

Internet database


The Burlington Police Department will soon take advantage

of the information superhighway to use the services of a

Dallas based database.

The streamlined sharing of information will make law

enforcement’s communication with pawn shops more

efficient, said Burlington detective Eddie Rogge.

Previously the police would obtain hard copies of merchandise records from pawn shops, called pawn tickets.

Last week the Burlington City Council approved a contract between the police department and LeadsOnline,

an the Internet investigation system used exclusively by law enforcement to “solve more crimes in less time,”

according to the LeadsOnline Web site, http://www.leadsonline.com.

Pawn shops can sign up for free to report transactions to LeadsOnline, which provides the information for a

yearly fee to law enforcement agencies.

It will be a time- and money-saver for police, Rogge said.

Receiving pawn tickets by hand meant records clerks at the law enforcement agencies would have to enter

the information manually. Sometimes clerks would not have time to do that, Rogge said.

He said he learned of LeadsOnline from Snohomish County agencies who said they experienced success with it.

All of the law enforcement agencies in Skagit County will soon use LeadsOnline, Rogge said.

State law requires pawn shops hold items and report their serial numbers and descriptions, along with the

seller’s identification, to local law enforcement.

Rogge said pawn shops have been receptive of the idea.

Submitting merchandise records electronically will be an easy way to communicate with the police, said Jay

Oh, owner of Fairhaven Trading Post in Burlington.

Rogge said property crime is the No. 1 category of crime in Burlington, and it correlates closely with the rate

of drug use in the city.

Solving property crimes is a good way to combat drug use, he added.

“If we can arrest more people, hopefully either rehab or jail time or whatever will get them to change their

ways,” Rogge said.

It is a well known fact in law enforcement that property crime and drug use go “hand in hand,” he said.

Three years’ worth of transaction records are available for searching on LeadsOnline, and the company

features a service that allows a search of product listings on eBay, a popular Internet tool for buying and

selling merchandise.

The Web site also has a methamphetamine-focused link called LeadsOnlabs. That service partners pharmacies

with law enforcement to monitor purchases of ephedrine, one of the main ingredients in cooking meth.

LeadsOnline receives information from stores in more than 1,000 cities throughout the United States, according

to its Web site.

Each agency is able to tap into each others’ information on LeadsOnline, a feature Rogge said the Burlington

department will take advantage of.

The database also compares local merchandise information to records from the National Crime Information

Center. “So if someone is stealing here and pawning in Idaho, we can pull and see what their transactions

are nationally,” Rogge said.

But the main benefit will be the links among law enforcement agencies in adjoining counties, he said.

“All the local agencies in Skagit County have agreed to go with LeadsOnline. So we’ll all be using the same

system and that’s probably where we’ll get most of our useful hits and information from, but the link to

Snohomish County will be a benefit as well.”