Police sometimes recover stolen property but cannot identify its rightful owner because the object’s identifying information is not connected to an accessible ownership record. This problem has complicated theft investigations and property recovery for decades.
A Problem Documented by the Federal Government
In 1979, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), now the Government Accountability Office, investigated Operation Identification, a nationally promoted crime-prevention program encouraging citizens to mark their valuables.
The GAO contacted police departments in 10 major American cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Officials in all 10 cities acknowledged recovering marked property that could not be traced to its rightful owner or the organization responsible for the marking.
They agreed that a uniform identification system could improve the return of recovered property.
Source: U.S. General Accounting Office, Report GGD-79-54, April 25, 1979.
Why Identification Alone Isn’t Enough
Consider a stolen power tool recovered during an unrelated investigation.
The tool may have a manufacturer’s serial number, but unless that number matches an accessible stolen-property report or ownership record, investigators may have no practical means of identifying its owner.
An identifiable object is not necessarily a traceable object.
This distinction matters because identifying the owner can also help establish evidence connecting recovered property to a reported crime.
Why Police Reports Matter
Filing a police report creates an official record of the theft.
Providing the item’s manufacturer, model, serial number, and Owner Applied Number (OAN) gives investigators identifying information they can compare with recovered property.
Qualifying stolen-property records may also be entered into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
Without those records, establishing a connection between recovered property and a reported theft becomes more difficult.
How My Property ID Registry Helps
My Property ID Registry (MPIDR) modernizes Operation Identification through numbered asset tags, a privacy-protected online registry and warning signs for doors and windows.
Property owners use MPIDR’s online registry to document each item’s make, model, and serial number before it is lost or stolen, establishing a pre-loss record that can support police reporting and subsequent ownership tracing.
If tagged property is recovered, its identifier can be submitted through MPIDR’s FOUND portal, providing a means of notifying the registered owner without publicly disclosing personal information.
MPIDR complements police reporting; it does not replace it.
Conclusion
The problem identified by the GAO in 1979 remains relevant: recovering property is not the same as identifying its owner.
Property identification tells investigators what an object is. Property tracing creates a path to whom it belongs.
