BRITISH COLUMBIA POLICE DATABASE FINGERS COMPUTER THEFT SUSPECT Police database fingers a suspect:
Chad Skelton, Vancouver SunPublished: Thursday, March 09, 2006

"On Jan. 7, Vancouver police arrested a man on suspicion of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in computer equipment -- and found a fistful of pawn slips in his pocket and a page ripped from the Yellow Pages listing all the pawnshops in the Lower Mainland.

'We know that he was in North Vancouver, Coquitlam, Surrey and New Westminster because those were communities that he had pawn slips in his pocket for,' acting Insp. Doug Fisher said Wednesday. 'Was he anywhere else? You bet.'

Yet while it appears the suspect committed most of his crimes and offloaded most of his stolen goods in the suburbs, it wasn't until he tried selling computers in Vancouver that he got caught.

Vancouver police say that's because they are the only jurisdiction in Greater Vancouver using Xtract, a software program that tracks goods through pawnshops and second-hand stores"

And they say the suspect's alleged crime spree illustrates why the provincial government needs to make Xtract mandatory across the province.

"Without Xtract, I believe [this man] would still be stealing," said Det.-Const. Wendy Sinclair, the lead investigator on the case.

Most municipalities in Greater Vancouver already have bylaws that require pawnshops and second-hand stores to send police a list of every item they take in and who they got it from.

But most of those reports are mailed or faxed in and then each item must be checked individually against stolen-goods reports on the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) -- an archaic system Fisher described as "1975 'Pong' technology."

Xtract, in contrast, is a database that constantly matches descriptions of goods in secondhand stores against crime reports in PRIME -- the province's police-records software.

Xtract also allows police to flag suspected criminals, so police are alerted immediately if that person tries to sell something.

That's exactly what police did in this case, when the suspect -- a 35-year-old with a lengthy criminal record -- sold a brand-new computer server worth more than $20,000 last summer, said Fisher, the officer in charge of Xtract.

When the suspect began offloading several computers in Vancouver last fall, police put a surveillance team on him and arrested him as he tried to break into a business in Burnaby.

Police allege the suspect stole about $200,000 in computer equipment from a variety of businesses, including one daycare centre.

But Vancouver police say they have only been able to locate about 20 per cent of that -- because there is no easy way of finding the property sold outside Vancouver.

Richard Reid Warner has been charged with 30 offences, including 12 for breaking and entering.

Vancouver has been using Xtract since 1999 and Chilliwack and Kelowna recently adopted the system as well.

Vancouver police say they made several arrests and seizures the first few years after Xtract was set up, but many criminals are now catching on.

"Once a lot of the thieves got used to the idea that Vancouver has policed the pawnshops much better, they moved to other municipalities," said Sinclair.

Municipalities already have the power to implement Xtract if they wish. But Fisher said many have balked at the cost and time required to amend their bylaws.

That's why the province needs to bring in legislation mandating Xtract across B.C., he said -- something he estimates would cost the province about $500,000 a year.

Solicitor-General John Les said Wednesday he thinks it should be up to each municipality to decide whether it wants Xtract -- but said he's concerned more haven't jumped on board.

"I will ask my officials to take a look at that and see what is, perhaps, holding the municipalities back," he said. "We'll be sorting through that in the next little while because I do think the VPD has raised important questions."

Michael Isman is owner of Royal City Jewellers & Loans in New Westminster and a board member of the B.C. Pawnbrokers Association. Isman said he doesn't have a problem reporting the goods he receives but thinks sending police the names of his customers violates their privacy.
Last year, he challenged New Westminster's right to force him to divulge his customers' names.

He lost his case but says he has filed an appeal.

cskelton@png.canwest.com