British Columbia police officer, Const. David Brierley was frustrated with the lack of resources to help him identify stolen items, so he worked with Strategy Star to build a public service website where Canadian citizens could register their personal possessions with VIN numbers, serial numbers, barcodes, and other details for the off chance that the property was stolen and later recovered by Police.
“So now the police officer on the road will be able to use the property cop database to query serial numbers that the owner has proactively provided, and for the first time he’ll be able to find out who the owner is and get the item back to him,” Brierly told CBC News.
Source: CBC News
The Propertycop website consists of a public facing website as well as a private mobile portal that the police can access from their patrol vehicle equipment. In the public website citizens can register their personal possessions that might be targeted by thieves. The mobile portal is used by police to check whether recovered property has been proactively registered by anyone, in which case it could be returned to the rightful owner.