Maryland State Police property crime investigators launch a new strategy to patrol the online marketplace for stolen property. Since the inception of RAPID, the Regional Automated Property Information Database, in 2009, law enforcement agencies statewide have recovered over $18 million dollars in stolen property. Using the innovative tool, equipped with over 11 million searchable records, police are now able to strategically search eBay, an online marketplace, in an effort to return more stolen property to the victims of property crime. Property includes jewelry, camera equipment, expensive electronic items, tools, lawn equipment, scrap and precious metals. Maryland was the first state in the nation to create a central database for the transaction of this kind of data, which has proved successful in solving property crimes and a variety of other crimes. Although the RAPID database is managed by the Maryland State Police, it is the collaborative effort among all law enforcement agencies in the state which has resulted in more stolen property recovered, more arrests and more closed cases. The Maryland State Police RAPID team continually provides advanced training to allied law enforcement agencies. “RAPID has proved to be an invaluable resource as police seek to dismantle criminal operations and recover […]
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