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The Florida Law Journal
LeadsOnline Brings Together Pawn Shops and Prosecutors
By Dottie Paris, Features Editor
March 28, 2011
MIAMI – The detectives at the Hialeah Police Department are among law enforcement officials and legal personnel using a new online tool to help solve crimes and put together cases.
Last week, the Hialeah PD recovered $2,500 in stolen jewelry after the suspect tried to sell the goods to a local pawn shop, thanks in part to a nation-wide database product called LeadsOnline.
Using item descriptions, the detectives entered information into the LeadsOnline database, and shortly thereafter were notified where the items had been sold. The suspect was located and arrested, and the stolen items were returned one day after they were stolen.
While it helped Hialeah PD to quickly track down the stolen goods, LeadsOnline has applications to the field of law.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys are using the electronic log book system to prove or disprove the whereabouts or actions of suspects involved in crime. The data provided by LeadsOnline has helped close cases ranging from simple burglary, to fraud, arson and murder.
"We're proud that Leads Online can help catch crooks stealing from Florida's citizens," said LeadsOnline president and chief executive officer Dave Finley. "And we have helped prosecutors in their continual battle against perpetrators who commit a range of crimes."
The product helps jurisdictions work with each other and defense attorneys and prosecutors can work with other regions across the country in real time to find information on tight deadlines.
"The information from LeadsOnline can help prove suspects are selling items in other areas, not just the areas where they are accused of a crime," said Anne Clarrissimeaux, director of communications for LeadsOnline. "It allows investigators to work across jurisdictional lines. It helps prosecutors and attorneys to put together evidence that will help them close cases across jurisdictional boundaries."
Use of LeadsOnline was implemented in Hialeah 2009 and departments across Florida use the system to track down stolen items.
Recently, St. Lucie County Sheriff's investigators filed more than two dozen misdemeanor charges on suspects who had pawned more than $4,000 in stolen property. Fort Pierce Police arrested two men accused of selling nearly $25,000 worth of stolen property to a Fort Pierce pawn shop.
The database uses a variety of ways to search for stolen property, including serial and model numbers, as well as descriptions. That information is input into a database that is accessible to clients across the country. So if an item is stolen in Hialeah and sold in Daytona Beach, police will be immediately alerted to its location. Even if the property is sold in New York City, police have the same immediate access.
Pawn and second-hand stores upload their transaction information electronically, versus the previous way of writing paper pawn tickets that were time consuming and inefficient in helping police solve crime. The LeadsOnline system, which is free to businesses, allows pawn shops and second-hand stores to easily report their transaction information to police.
LeadsOnline used by more than 3,000 law enforcement agencies to recover stolen property and solve crimes. Each day, millions of items are added to the LeadsOnline database by businesses including second-hand stores, scrap metal recyclers, pawn shops, and Internet drop-off stores across all 50 states. Those records are instantly available to law enforcement agencies, meaning crimes can be solved in seconds, not months.
LeadsOnline helps prevent illegal transactions on eBay by giving law enforcement access to the world's largest online marketplace through automatic upload of all eBay transactions into the LeadsOnline database.
LeadsOnline also includes LeadsOnlabs, a system for tracking those involved in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamines; a Metal Theft Investigation System designed to track copper and other metal thefts; and cross-checks names of pawn customers against the OFAC SDN list of known terrorists and narcotics traffickers.