Council could do away with paper pawn tickets

by Carol Crump
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 12:15 PM MDT

(excerpt)

Casper’s Police Department could join 730 other law enforcement agencies, thousands of stores in

all 50 states and eBay in a nationwide Internet system for tracking stolen goods.

With City Council approval pending this month, the Web-

based LeadsOnline reporting system will replace the

paper system currently used by pawnshops to report their

transactions.

Pawnshops are licensed and regulated at the local, state

and federal level. They are required to follow rules from

the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms if they trade

in guns; they are regulated by the Federal Reserve Board

in much the same way as banks.

They also are required by the Patriot Act to check all

customers against the Treasury Department's

database of known terrorists.

“Anything we take in has to be reported, even if it’s a nickel item, whether it’s sold or pawned,”

said Kathy Rideout, owner of Casper’s Loan Ranger pawnshop.

According to the National Pawnbrokers Association Web site, pawnbrokers lend money without

a credit check on items of value, ranging from gold and diamond jewelry to household items and

stacks of DVDs.

A typical loan is 30-50 percent of the retail value of the item, and the loan amount is small,

averaging from $75 to $100.

“(It’s) Enough to make it to payday,” Rideout said.

The maximum pawn amount allowed in Wyoming is $3,000.

The interest rate charged by a pawnbroker is controlled by the State and varies widely

across the nation. Rideout said the monthly interest rate typically charged in Casper is 20

percent a month.

The pawnbroker also is required to hold the merchandise for a specific period of time, to

give the borrower time to repay the loan.

There are no legal consequences if the loan is not repaid, and the pawnbroker can sell

the item to recoup the money paid out as a loan.

Going high tech

With LeadsOnline, the store would fill in the same information, currently recorded on

a paper pawn ticket, on a computer.

That information includes the customer's name, address, type of identification provided

to the pawnbroker, a description of the item, amount borrowed.

The necessary computer software is available free from LeadsOnline to participating

stores and requires only a computer with Internet access.

The data immediately goes into the largest Web-based system used by law enforcement

to investigate crimes involving property.

The database, which is accessible only by law enforcement with arresting powers who are

investigating a crime, has multiple fire walls.

It “is as secure as you can get in the U.S.,” said LeadsOnline Communication Manager

Stephanie Christiansen.

“You can’t just browse. It’s really for investigative purposes,” Christiansen said, adding

that even stores that input data are blocked from looking at any other store’s information.

LeadsOnline would replace the current system that uses police department volunteers to

pick up the paper tickets several times a week.

Once the tickets are picked up, a police department clerk enters the data into a computer

and the national data base.

At an informational presentation at a work session last month, Casper Police Detective

Robin Tuma said the current system has a three-month backlog to hand enter and sort

through all of the information.

"After 30 days, that stuff is sold, and we don't even know it was pawned," he said.

Support and opposition

The regional manager of all 43 of the Mister Money pawnshops in the U.S., Bernard

Brennan, drove to Casper from Fort Collins, Colo., to support LeadsOnline before the

City Council.

His stores have been part of the computer-based reporting system for more than three

years.

“It’s impractical in this day and age for the police department to manually input data

that can be electronically inputted,” he said.

Rideout opposes the switch to the online system because of concerns about client

confidentiality and potential cost to her business.

She also said pawnshops have an image problem that won’t be improved by the new

program.

“It perpetuates the myth that stolen stuff ends up in a pawnshop,” she said, noting

that information from the National Pawnbrokers Association says that only approximately

one-tenth of l percent of all the items that come into a pawnshop are stolen.

Rideout believes that all outlets that purchase and sell used merchandise, such as

second-hand stores, should have to report their transactions.

“It’s true -- most pawns are legitimate,” Christiansen said. “All LeadsOnline does is

open up the lines of communication between a business and law enforcement. We just

made it easier to weed through the mess.”