This is an article published in the June 1971 issue of the FBI Law Enforcement Journal. pp. 26-27. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin – June 1971 — LEB
Operation Identification by Everett F. Holladay, Chief of Police, Monterey Park, California
The best way to stop a thief is to convince him that he will be caught with his hand in the “cookie jar.” This is what is happening to the daylight house burglar—the plague of suburbia—in a citizen-police project called “Operation Identification.”
The common denominator of almost every daytime house burglar is that he rings the doorbell to determine whether anyone is on the premises. What he usually sees as he looks anxiously about is: “No peddlers or solicitors” or the “We Gave” sticker.
In Monterey Park, where the project was initiated in 1963, at an ever-growing number of homes, now approximately 4,000, he also sees a decal with a facsimile of a policeman’s badge. It says, “We have joined Operation Identification. All items of value on these premises have been marked for ready identification by Law Enforcement Agencies.”
Since the project was launched jointly by the Monterey Park Police Department and the local Exchange Club which purchased the decals and electrical etching tools for loan to citizens, the idea has been adopted in 23 other communities, supported by organizations such as the Kiwanis Club, Rotary, Independent Insurance Agents Association, police officers’ associations, and others. Inquiries have been received from approximately 160 additional communities across the Nation and from the foreign countries of Canada, Pakistan, and Israel.
The challenge that has always plagued law enforcement in the case of thievery is the identification of the rightful owner of recovered stolen items. Police auctions held across the country are evidence that manufacturers’ serial numbers have been ineffective in this regard.
Citizen-Police Partnership
With the advent of the computer, law enforcement in most areas either presently have or will soon have real-time access to the name and address of the holders of operators’ licenses. The owner’s inscription of his operator’s license number on portable items of value, such as power tools, electrical appliances, TV sets, etc., presents the officer in the field a ready means of establishing ownership should he stop a thief with loot in his possession.
When alert to this process, the officer, in checking a suspect vehicle and recognizing this mark, simply compares it with the operator’s license number of the suspect. If the two are not the same, he has reason to make further investigation.
Pawn shop ordinances will probably be rewritten to require the immediate reporting of all proffered items marked in this manner.
The preventive results of this citizen-police partnership are evidenced by the fact that while residential burglaries across the Nation have been increasing, the same is not true in Monterey Park. In fact, during the past 2 years, there has been an actual reduction of these offenses even though the population has increased. Of the homes identified in this manner, since 1963 only six have been burglarized.
