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Las Vegas Sun
Innovative website helps police track down stolen property
By Steve Kanigher
January 1, 2011
Not many years ago, people who were robbed or burglarized often fumbled when police asked them for serial numbers, photos or other identifying information to help recover their stolen valuables.
That changed 10 years ago, when a company that's still little known outside of law enforcement established a nationwide computer database.
The database aided police in the recent arrest of a Chaparral High School teacher who is accused of stealing school equipment. It is also helping people and businesses recover lost or stolen property. LeadsOnline, a privately held Dallas firm that serves law enforcement agencies for a fee based on the department's size, is becoming an increasingly popular crime fighting tool. Authorities in Southern Nevada and elsewhere use the database to track stolen goods that criminals attempt to sell through pawnshops, secondhand stores and online auctions such as eBay.
LeadsOnline in July launched ReportIt, a free online service that lets individuals and businesses submit inventories for police in case of burglary or theft.
Consumers can access ReportIt at leadsonline.com and register the serial numbers of televisions, laptop computers, video game consoles or power tools. They can list identifying marks on jewelry, such as personal inscriptions. If they have pets, collectibles or musical instruments, they can register those, too. And they can include photographs and scanned receipts to help police identify stolen merchandise.
The company can afford to provide ReportIt for free because of the income from its paying customers, which include some of the largest police forces in the country. Among the subscribers to LeadsOnline are police departments in New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Houston, Dallas and San Francisco. The company says it serves 1,600 police agencies and contains records on more than 300 million items.
Metro Police Sgt. E.P. Brown of the construction theft detail encourages everyone in Southern Nevada to use ReportIt, as he does.
"I do it because I'm as guilty as anyone else of not remembering my serial numbers," he said. "Because it's Web-based, you can access the information from anywhere. You can access it away from home if you have to."
Anyone who has been burglarized knows the experience can be traumatic. Often, victims can't recall everything that has been stolen, let alone serial numbers or identifying marks. ReportIt remedies that problem. "If we can get people to record that information and they become a victim of a crime, it will make a difference in whether we make a recovery or not," Brown said.
North Las Vegas Police spends about $9,000 a year for access to LeadsOnline, which it began using in 2006. Officer Chrissie Coon, a department spokeswoman, said the database is successful, which is why she also advocates ReportIt.
"Let's say there's a fire in your home," Coon said. "You'd still have a file with serial numbers and photos that you can turn in to your insurance company."
LeadsOnline is led by President and CEO Dave Finley, who ran a company in Silicon Valley that was acquired by satellite TV company DirecTV. "I do believe it can have a huge impact in helping law enforcement solve crimes," he said. "It could make a big difference in returning property to its rightful owners."
Having launched in 2000, LeadsOnline claims to have had a significant effect in crime fighting, including the arrests of violent offenders tracked down through the database because of related property crimes.
"Property crimes are the kind that most people experience, and it also makes up the bulk of law enforcement's workload," Finley said. "It used to be that detectives would have to go to pawnshops, music stores and other businesses to look for missing property. To have a tool like LeadsOnline where they can search for property from their desk makes them a lot more productive."
The database doesn't yet extend to all businesses that could potentially deal in stolen property, such as swap meets and flea markets. But LeadsOnline spokeswoman Anne Clarissimeaux said its links with eBay and the pawnshop industry give the database an extensive inventory.
LeadsOnline assisted in the Dec. 17 arrest of biology teacher Danielle Garry, 39, by Clark County School District Police. On Dec. 3, according to an arrest report, she pawned a Dell laptop computer at a SuperPawn store in Henderson and a Hitachi liquid crystal projector at EZ Pawn, also in Henderson. Both items were in the database as belonging to the School District, police said. Garry is scheduled in February to appear in Las Vegas Justice Court after being charged with burglary, possession of stolen property and obtaining money under false pretenses. She is scheduled to have a screening on a felony charge and a bench trial on a misdemeanor charge, court records show.
Pawnshops input all pawned items into the LeadsOnline database so police agencies can match them with any items that have been reported lost or stolen. Previously, a pawnshop employee wrote descriptions of pawned items on tickets that were then handed to law enforcement officers. Police then manually inputted the information into their records.
Yolanda Walker, spokeswoman for Cash America in Fort Worth, Texas, which operates 21 SuperPawn stores in the Las Vegas Valley, said LeadsOnline saves time for pawnshops and police.
Her company estimates the 3,600 pawnshops that report to the database save more than 4 million man-hours a year for the industry and law enforcement.
Although Walker said that less than 1 percent of items that are pawned are stolen, it is best for the industry to cooperate with police.
"We don't want to take items that are misappropriated because we can lose money on them," Walker said.