A Wealth of Experience

Over the past eight years, Business Watch International has focused on product research and development. In 1997, it was evident that there was the need for a comprehensive automated pawn and used transaction reporting and investigations service. To this day this need persists; however, the implementation of such a service requires a concerted effort on the part of law enforcement and government agencies, and a degree of cooperation on the part of the used goods dealers to collaborate with the police.

In anticipation of the necessary legislation or municipal ordinances making automated reporting mandatory, BWI has funded and executed the implementation of its service, on a “proof-of-concept” basis in most of the major urban centers in Canada and we are beginning to make headway in the United States. BWI has had to be well funded to sustain the long sales cycle involved in establishing the necessary legal framework. This patience has allowed the BWI product to mature and become more robust as the demands on the service increased. Further the law enforcement and business communities have had to explore the available technical alternatives and the potential that the Internet provides in delivering the necessary solution.The following is a list of some of the jurisdictions where BWI is being used on a mandatory or pilot project basis.

Washington D.C. Council of Governments

In December, 2003 BWI signed a contract with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG). With this project, BWI is setting a new standard when it comes to internet-based crime prevention Washington DC and neighboring Counties selected BWI to implement a central, regional pawn data sharing system that allows local law enforcement agencies within the greater Washington, D.C. area to share used property transaction information.

BWI was selected over 10 other respondents for the comprehensiveness of their current system and their expertise and ability to custom design a solution that would meet all of Washington COG’s requirements. This project was delivered on-time and under budget.

Toronto Police Service   

Since January 1, 2003, BWI has provided its service on a pilot project basis to the Toronto Police Service. This city of 3.1 million residents has approximately 500 pawn and secondhand property dealers. The Toronto Police Service has decommissioned their mainframe application that police data entry clerks were previously using to input the hardcopy transaction reports and they are now inputting reported transactions into the BWI/police registry. Further, there are presently 40 volunteer property dealers using the BWI Business interface to report their transactions directly into the system. This has positively impacted the workload on police clerical staff and investigators. There are currently in excess of 200 police investigators accessing the BWI service to investigate transactions. Over the course of 2004, the police will be pursuing a municipal ordinance to make automated reporting mandatory.

Edmonton Police Service

In early 2005, BWI was awarded the contract to provide its hosted automated reporting service to the Edmonton Police Service. This city of approximately 1.0 million people has over 60 reporting businesses generating in excess of 10,000 transaction reports monthly. The BWI contract is for a period of five years.

Lansing Police Department

Lansing, Michigan is the latest US law enforcement jurisdiction to adopt the BWI service. With a municipal ordinance in place, the police have notified their pawnshops that mandatory reporting on the BWI service, either directly or through batch file, must be implemented by December 1st of this year. In the interim, the police have begun entering all reported transactions into the BWI/police registry and complete training of all investigators and numerous businesses was executed by BWI this past August.

Eugene, Oregon Police Department

The Eugene Police Department has been working closely with BWI for the past two years. A pilot project involving volunteer property dealers and police is leading to a county wide ordinance that is expected to make automated reporting mandatory before the end of this year.

BWI has developed a transaction export utility that uploads the transaction data to the Eugene PD records system to enable cross-reference checks against NCIC, state, and local property records.

York Regional Police Service

Since late 2002, a municipal ordinance making automated reporting mandatory has enabled the York Region of Ontario to enforce the direct or batch file input of all reported transactions to the BWI service. The York region is a collection of cities bordering Toronto in the province of Ontario. This jurisdiction has approximately 30 property dealers that are required to report on BWI.

Ottawa Police Service

A pilot project in the nation’s capital city has been underway since 2000. The Ottawa Police Service has been instrumental in assisting BWI develop the necessary investigation features currently available in the BWI Police application. Approximately one half of the property dealers in this city report their transactions on the BWI service. The police have been spearheading efforts to realize an ordinance to make automated reporting mandatory.

RCMP Policed Jurisdictions

Across Canada, there are in excess of 200 RCMP police jurisdictions and over 300 RCMP officers regularly accessing the BWI service to investigate the reported transactions. Many RCMP jurisdictions have made the commitment to pursue legislation and ordinances making automated reporting mandatory and their efforts are ongoing as of this time of writing.

It is also noteworthy that BWI has met the security clearances necessary to receive regular downloaded property records from the Canadian Police Information Center database - CPIC (the Canadian equivalent to NCIC). The CPIC records are used to enable the cross-reference checks, within the BWI service, of reported pawn transactions against the police property records.

Other Jurisdictions

The BWI Automated Reporting service has also been implemented on a mandatory basis in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Medicine Hat and Camrose Alberta. Legislation making automated reporting mandatory in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan was realized in June 2003. Pilot projects are also underway in the cities of Calgary, Winnipeg, Gatineau and others. BWI is also anticipating turning up new jurisdictions in Oregon and Michigan.