The Fort Worth Police Department and Cash America International - the world's largest provider of pawn loans - announced Monday their partnership with l.e.a.d.s.online, an automated law enforcement database currently used by more than 1,000 business owners and more 400 law enforcement agencies in 37 states.

The afternoon news conference was attended by Mayor Kenneth Barr, Police Chief Ralph Mendoza, state Rep. Glenn Lewis, D-Fort Worth, and officials from Cash America and l.e.a.d.s.online.

Police use the secure online database, which is available only to law enforcement, to cross reference property brand names, serial numbers and other descriptions with theft reports. If officers believe they have found a match, the person who pawned the items is then investigated.

State law requires that pawn shops give police departments a record of their transactions. Mendoza stressed that historically, stolen goods account for only a small percentage of a pawn shop's inventory.

Fort Worth police have been using the online system for about a year. Before l.e.a.d.s.online, Stephen Vega, a pawn shop detail officer, and other detectives routinely received stacks of carbon copies of pawn shop inventories. They would then enter this information into an in-house database.

In 2000, the department entered about 3,020 transaction tickets into the computer, Vega said. About 75 percent of Fort Worth pawnshop transactions can now be viewed using the new online system.

"It frees me up to do things an officer and detective needs to do versus data entry," Vega said.

Fort Worth police logged 22,889 theft offenses from January to October of this year, said Lt. Jesse Hernandez, a department spokesman. In 2001, they recorded 24,675 theft offenses, compared to 22,991 in 2000.

Detective R.E. Bruno has recovered everything from televisions to airless painters using the new online system. He said time is everything when officers are working to recover stolen property.

In the past, the quantity of paper stacks of pawn shop inventories meant the in-house database wasn't immediately current. The online system is in "real time," and property can be recovered before it is resold, Bruno said.

Other metroplex law enforcement agencies, such as those in Arlington and Dallas and Tarrant and Johnson counties, also use the l.e.a.d.s.online system.

"I'm really proud the city of Fort Worth is taking the initiative in making something like this happen," Barr said. "This is a program that's been proven to catch criminals and save tax money."

Peyton D. Woodson, (817) 390-7539 pdwoodson@star-telegram.com