PawnSafeBox is an online database service "created and developed by a policeman for police." Darren Vuzzo, Ph.D., a retired police sergeant from the Marlboro (N.J.) Police Department, created PawnSafeBox and the trademark advanced database system known as ARMD (Automated Regulatory Metals Database).
To law enforcement, ARMD offers a secure, encrypted, cloud-based software database solution that records, captures, searches for, and locates pawn shop/precious metal, secondhand jewelry, and non-jewelry transactions (i.e., electronics, tools, televisions, any resold item) in near real time.
Based upon officer activation, the system e-mails officers when a person of interest, or any other requested criteria, is matched. Each transaction is monitored within the database and alerts are forwarded by e-mail, for such activities as "unusual sales alerts" or "multiple sales alerts" to provide officers with an investigative advantage.
ARMD also provides resellers with a tool to warn the police and other resellers about individuals who have sold or who have attempted to sell stolen merchandise. This protects them, helps identify persons of interest, and often leads to the reseller helping to retrieve stolen property, simultaneously helping both the victim and the police.
But to attempt to solve crime utilizing only a simple linear approach from police to database is simply not enough. Since criminals steal in one place and sell in another, crime solving and prevention work best when they involve community-wide collaboration and cooperation. Pro-active law enforcement solutions are most effective when they involve not only the police, but also resellers, victims, and the public at large.
PawnSafeBox developed ARMD, which incorporates a "360-degree" approach to theft and property crimes that the company calls 360CSI (360 Crime Solving Integration). 360CSI was incorporated into ARMD, allowing the database to become a 360 Crime Solving Integration tool; bridging the gap between police, resellers, victims, and the public in property crime-fighting efforts. Most importantly, 360CSI empowers the victims of theft and property crimes.
Police agencies can utilize ARMD Pro+ free with registration of one pawn/precious metal shop, and ARMD Basic is free for police to search.
As part of 360CSI, the company recommends using the iii Home Inventory Application (desktop/iPhone/Android) to create an inventory of one's valuable personal property. Creating a home inventory, before theft or disaster occurs, is an inexpensive pro-active measure that should unquestionably be taken to aid insuring and retrieving your valuables should the worst happen.
To improve its services, PawnSafeBox has forged a relationship with Stolen911.com. Marc Hinch, creator of Stolen911.com, is a police detective in the San Francisco Bay Area. Covering the U.S. and Canada, Stolen911.com is one of the most popular stolen property database on the Internet. Now, Stolen911.com can be accessed via PawnSafeBox, where police, resellers, and victims can expand their search within the nationally integrated database system. In addition, PawnSafeBox will encourage all victims to sign into Stolen911.com and enter their stolen items to assist law enforcement agencies, resellers, and victims in locating their stolen property. In addition, victims can offer a reward (bounty) to whomever returns their stolen item.
Subsequently, criminals attempting to sell stolen merchandise anywhere in the U.S. and Canada, locally or online (via Craigslist), will find thousands if not millions of eyes watching and searching for stolen items. This is another way PawnSafeBox and Stolen911.com are helping empower victims of property crimes.
Empowerment of property crime victims begins with the ability to create an Internet fingerprint of their stolen property by listing within Stolen911.com. The major search engines, like Google, index property listed on Stolen 911.com. Unlike other stolen property sites, anyone can now view or post stolen property. You don't have to register to look through the Stolen911.com user created database. On Stolen911.com, a victim's stolen property will be listed and searchable for one year. If it's not recovered, the victim can list it again free each year until it's located. Best of all, this database utilizes the power of the public and increases visibility.