NCJ Number
78930
Date Published
1980
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Explored are technical possibilities to aid German police in locating numbered and unnumbered lost or stolen objects.
Abstract
The goal of searches for objects is to find evidence relevant to criminal offenses and property which is missing or stolen. Since 1972, the West German INPOL information system has been gradually developed to speed up the search process. The system makes it possible to trace numbered objects, or their fragments and to review requests for information on particular objects. While the system is useful for locating stolen automobiles, possibilities for use have not been exhausted. Many vehicles cannot be located because of inadequate information and failure of foreign police to promptly report thefts of Germans' cars stolen abroad. Mopeds and similar motor bikes are difficult to identify because there is no central registry of their frame numbers. Efforts at reducing bike thefts, such as the Krefeld and Muenster models, have successfully used a combination of checks, patrols, and observation to improve the bike theft clearance rate. Computer-assisted searches for unnumbered objects require thorough descriptions of missing objects. Siemens has developed the Golem system for assistance in recovering stolen art objects. The Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation has also created a system, Spudok, for locating statues and paintings. Attempts to locate unnumbered objects have made the value of identification numbers apparent. Several countries, with the support of industry and the press, have launched campaigns encouraging the public to engrave their names on their belongings. Examples are Operation Vulcan in Canada, Operation Identification in Chicago, and efforts urging jewelers to place identification marks on jewelry, smoked meat producers to stamp sausages and other meats, and art work and carpet owners to save thorough descriptions and photographs of valuable carpets and art works. A German firm has invented a laser process for micromarking objects with such small numbers that they cannot be read even with a microscope. The author stresses the need for laws requiring better marking of objects and controls on retail merchants who take used objects in trade for new ones or who deal in antiques.