Tulsa Police Test New Program That Helps Recover Stolen Property

The Tulsa Police Department is testing a computer program that would help them recover additional stolen property. It's called LeadsOnline and allows detectives to find items pawned not just in Tulsa,

Friday, July 20th 2007, 10:39 am

By: News On 6


The Tulsa Police Department is testing a computer program that would help them recover additional stolen property. It's called LeadsOnline and allows detectives to find items pawned not just in Tulsa, but across the nation. Burglary victims tell us all the time how much they'd like to have their stolen stuff back. News On 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright reports it's not just because buying a new TV is expensive, but because some items are so sentimental, they are irreplaceable.

We talked to one woman who didn't care about anything else burglars took from her home except the only copy she had of a videotape of her son's funeral.

Detective Jim McClaughry's job is to track down stolen property and get it back to the rightful owners, and he's quite passionate about it.

"When a person is broke into, they already feel violated because someone was in their house or car. Now, they gotta fight with the insurance company, replace items, and they end up feeling extremely violated,” said McClaughry.

McClaughry is testing a computer program that he believes could triple the number of items he recovers for victims. LeadsOnline allows pawn shops to download their ticket information every night. Right now, shops mail in the information and a clerk at the police department enters items with serial numbers into the computer, and volunteers enter as many items without serial numbers as possible.

"This would enable us to get all the information, jewelry, things that don't have serial numbers, plus all the other information that goes with any pawn transaction,” McClaughry said.

LeadsOnline allows police to search the city, county, state or nation for stolen items that are pawned. Sometimes stolen property leads to big arrests, like when two murder suspects took items from their victim.

"They ended up looking at LeadsOnline and found property pawned by two individuals,” said McClaughry. “With that information, they got them and interviewed them, and they ended up confessing to the homicide."

McClaughry says the pawn shops bend over backward to help police identify and track down stolen property, and this new system would not add work to them but be even simpler.

With every stolen item McClaughry recovers, there's a story. Like a man who was at his father's funeral when someone broke into the house and stole the father's gun, the only memento the son had left because of a fire. The gun was missing 30 years until McClaughry found it last year when it was pawned in Tulsa. Now, that man can pass down the gun to his son.

The downside to this program is the price tag of $27,000 a year. Of course, the data entry clerk position would no longer be needed.

The chief is looking into it.

Watch the video: TPD Testing New Crime Fighting Tool
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