Item 4: Ordinance Concerning Used Merchandise Dealers

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sold items; and to reduce the work hours needed to collect, enter and retrieve information about this property. Although the employment of automated pawn systems is a relatively new alternative to the traditional methods of reporting and investigating pawn shops and secondhand dealers, it is not an alternative that has been untried. Currently several law enforcement agencies within the United States and Canada are using some form of an automated pawn system to assist them in their investigation of pawn and secondhand dealer transactions. Many of these systems are stand-alone systems with limited cross-jurisdictional application that have been developed by the individual agencies to meet their specific needs. After the examination of several available automated reporting systems Lane County and the cities of Eugene and Springfield initiated a pilot project for automated reporting of used merchandise transactions to law enforcement. The vendor chosen through a formal Request for Proposal process provides the internet-based program for collection, storage and delivery of transaction information gathered in pawn shops and secondhand goods or used merchandise businesses. The automated reporting system links police services to a real-time database that displays information on transactions occurring in pawn and secondhand businesses. Pawn and secondhand businesses enter every transaction through a computer which is faster and more economical than with any paper method. All information is transferred by Internet into the vendor’s database. Police Services using this system have round-the-clock access to a database that covers jurisdictions across the country. Initially, four secondhand stores agreed to participate in the pilot project, increasing to seven stores by 2005. During the course of the three-year pilot project, the vendor modified their automated reporting system to integrate their systems with the regional Area Information Regional System (AIRS) system. This is a very significant benefit as there are no available commercial products that will integrate with AIRS. Sizable resources in programming time have made the automated reporting system as seamless as possible and have addressed the specific needs of both law enforcement and secondhand businesses, making the system much more effective locally. The result of this effort eliminates redundant data entry in multiple data systems or logs, and thus integrates the automated system with AIRS (local), LEDS (state), and NCIC (Federal) databases to identify stolen property. In March of 2004, Lane County, Eugene and Springfield jointly developed a proposed Used Merchandise Dealer Ordinance that updated current practices and procedures, including the use of automated reporting. Upon completion of the proposed Used Merchandise Dealer Ordinance, used merchandise dealers and owners were invited to attend a meeting to discuss the proposed ordinance and automated reporting. Following an analysis of comments and suggestions made by the used merchandise dealers, several of the suggestions were incorporated into the draft ordinance. In October of 2004, used merchandise dealers and owners were invited to attend a second meeting to discuss the revised ordinance. At the conclusion of the meeting with the used merchandise dealers, government representatives of Lane County, Eugene and Springfield agreed to proceed with the adoption process.