Crime Sift

At one time insurance companies and the police were suggesting that people engrave their drivers license number, social insurance number or some other personal identifier to assist the police and insurance companies to track and recover stolen property. Now that identity theft is probably the greatest risk to an individuals financial security scratching this information into the bottom of your electronics does not sound like a good idea.

Between the time of a break in to your residence or business or between the time when some lizard steals your prized bike from the spot where you left it and when you report the theft there is little the police can do to recover the item unless they see the theft in progress. The problem is that the police have no way to determine or establish reasonable grounds to believe that the person they see with your plasma television in the backseat of their $400 car is in possession of stolen goods. No one has reported the item stolen and there is no one to contact to confirm that the driver of the car containing your plasma is a thief as opposed to someone who prefers to put his money into fine televisions rather than his ride. At this point the officer’s spidey sense is going off but there is really little that can be done and the chances that your item will be recovered are getting slimmer.

On February 21, 2007 an idea was launched to fill this hole. Propertycop.org is an online database through which people can register their property and post pictures. Now when an officers spidey sense is tingling he can have a query done of Propertycop and find out that the property he has in front of him belongs to the registered owner and not Joe Lizard.

It looks like this program is going to take off. Since Propertycop’s media presentation there have been approximately 1000 registrants and 15000 property items registered in the database. The description of the intention of this site and some of its advantages are described on the website.

The PRRD is not a Police database. It is a private database which users give the Police and authorized personnel permission to query. Issues of privacy have been reflected in the design of the program. Generally, a user’s personal information is limited to a driver’s licence number, which only the Police can cross reference. Police agencies’ Property Crime Detectives throughout North America and the United Kingdom will have access to the database. Police Patrol Officers will be able to telephone a call center, staffed by security cleared volunteers, and learn if property has been registered. In short, this proactive and community driven project, will provide Police with a realistic approach towards the continuing problem of property crime.

The Propertycop program is the best new answer to recovering stolen property as our far reaching approach crosses Police jurisdictional boundaries. Police are disadvantaged in trying to establish a database of non-stolen property as their mandates and budgets are tied to their jurisdictional responsibilities. It is a fact that stolen property often migrates from one region to another, sometimes in an organized manner. The Propertycop program creates a tool for all Police Officers to use to get your property back, even if it moves to another region.

I like the idea that the pictures and information submitted to Propertycop can be emailed to your insurance company. This is a fantastic feature if your computer has been stolen which contains all of the pictures of your missing property.

Obviously Propertycop.org is still in the development phase and I am sure their will be many improvements in the immediate future. One potential shortcoming that I could come up with is that like all databases this one will only be as valuable as the accuracy of the information it contains. The shortcoming in this system will be the user. It will be critical that serial numbers are accurately entered and that when items are legitimately sold or otherwise disposed of by their owner, Propertycop.org will have to be updated. In order to keep an item registered in the system, the owner should have to reconfirm that they presently still have the item in their possession after the expiration of a certain period. This way when an item is queried and Propertycop.org lists the owner of the item, the police feel confident that they can act.

Go to Propertycop.org and register your items. It looks like the program will be officially launched March 7, 2007. If you feel the compulsive need to scratch something into the bottom of your laptop try using “Propertycop.org.” Propertycop should produce and sell some flashy stickers to raise revenue and take any the temptation to get out the engraver.