FLORIDA COMPUTERS STOLEN Hillsborough school officials want to stop laptop theft:

Hillsborough school officials want to stop laptop theft

By ADAM EMERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 20, 2009

TAMPA - Is it harder to steal a laptop computer if the owner's name is engraved on the machine?

The Hillsborough County school district is confident that it is and plans to spend $42,000 to back it up.

In the last three years, 490 laptops at public schools and district offices went missing due to loss or theft, according to district figures. Now, school board members say it's time to keep people honest.

One low-tech and low-cost way to do that is to engrave "Property of Hillsborough Public Schools" right on the computer. The cost: about $15 for every new laptop, if the school board accepts the proposal at its meeting Tuesday.

"It creates an incentive not to steal it," said David Steele, the district's chief information and technology officer. "If the engraving would cut our losses by a third, it would pay for itself."

The district also plans to engrave a phone number when someone finds the machine at, say, a coffee shop.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has found that engraving its laptops has reduced the number of thefts, Steele said, and other districts are following suit.

Although Hillsborough officials say the number of computers gone missing is lower than in previous years, they acknowledge they still lose thousands of dollars worth of equipment every few months.

Last month, the school board signed off on a quarterly report detailing the loss and theft of computers, LCD projectors and other gadgets valued at $21,148.

Of 27 laptops gone between July and September, just three went missing or were damaged, the report showed. The other two dozen were stolen.

"The money we spend on replacing these items is money that could be spent in other places," board member April Griffin said last month. "In this economy, we need to be mindful of that."

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285.