Due to the daily struggles that street cops endure, two Baltimore County, Maryland police officers decided to create something that would be convenient and easy to use to return lost or stolen property to the rightful owners. Considering the numerous burglary and theft calls officers respond to across the nation, My Property Locker (MPL) strives to reduce the number of open cases and tedious follow-ups for officers. Imagine responding to a residential burglary and the victim is able to provide you with a print-out that includes serial numbers, pictures, and all pertinent information. Now this information can be accurately documented and entered into NCIC without having to conduct multiple follow ups with the victim. MPL offers this!
MPL also offers a brand new innovative investigation tool. Envision patrolling your post on midnight shift. You see a suspicious person walking down a dark alley, wearing a backpack. Upon search, you discover multiple electronics that you believe are stolen. Currently, you would contact your dispatcher and run the serial numbers through NCIC. Surprise, surprise, they are not reported stolen and you are forced to conduct a field interview and release the suspicious person. But now, you are armed with MPL and you run the same serial numbers through the www.mypropertylocker.com database. MPL returns owner information from an address two blocks down, including a picture and all matching product information. You utilize the phone number provided on MPL, and the rightful owner realizes that, while they were sleeping, they were a victim of a car break-in. Thanks to MPL, you have removed a criminal from the street and returned the property to its owner!
The website works as follows:
- Users enter information about their personal serialized property into their unique locker (a secure database)
- In the event of property theft or loss, users flag their lost property in the database
- Upon recovery of a lost or stolen item, police officers can utilize MPL’s vast database to return the property to its rightful owner
Officers and civilians have two different views of the website: civilians ONLY see their own belongings (lockers), whereas officers are given “advanced search capabilities”. All user information is kept private; officers are ONLY given the following information upon recovery of a serialized item:
- User’s name
- User’s email address
- User’s phone number
- User’s zip code
If you’re interested in reducing your workload and rapidly clearing cases, here is what you need to do:
- Log onto www.mypropertylocker.com
- Click on “Police”, and agree to the Terms and Conditions
- Enter the required information, and click “Submit”
- MPL will verify your employment
- Upon approval, you are Ready to Go!
