RENTON, Wash. — The Renton Police Department and four other departments rolled out a new, high-tech way to help people track down their stolen items.
“It is crazy the amount of property that we cannot connect back to the owner,” Renton Police Officer Shawn Tierney said.
Tierney said there are thousands of items sitting unclaimed in the property room he showed KIRO 7, but he’s hoping the new system he created, TrackMole, will change that.
If an officer finds stolen property, he can log in to the free TrackMole website and run the serial number on it.
If someone has registered an item and its serial number on TrackMole, he or she receives an alert.
The officer can see whatever contact info that person has chosen to include, as well as a description of the item.
Renton Mayor Denis Law calls it a great idea.
“We want to have as many tools possible to help victims of crime,” he said.
He’s even asking city employees to register their equipment.
“We try not to lose much equipment but it happens,” he said.
With all the benefits of the system, KIRO 7 asked the Seattle Police Department why it wasn’t using the tool as well.
Seattle police explained that right now, crime prevention coordinators work with neighborhood block watch captains. They give the block watch captains engravers and encourage people to mark their property, so if it’s stolen and recovered, police can get it back to them.
Seattle police spokesperson Renee Witt told KIRO 7 on Monday that a sergeant with one of their burglary theft divisions presented the TrackMole system to command staff about a week ago and is waiting for authorization to move forward.
Tierney said TrackMole also saves officers hours spent transporting, bagging, initialing, and entering the stolen property into the system.
“It's vital time that police can get back on the street,” he said.
Website: https://trackmole.com/
KIRO
