A local couple who are Mountain Home business owners have stepped forward to donate funds to renew the Sheriff’s Office yearly membership and licensing fees for the LeadsOnline electronic reporting system used by law enforcement, pawn shops, and pawn brokers.

     The Sheriff’s Office began utilizing LeadsOnline to review and access pawn shop transactions in the summer of 2011.  The Baxter County Quorum Court enacted an ordinance to require all pawn shops and pawn brokers doing business in the county to record their transactions in the LeadsOnline system rather than reporting manually on paper forms.  The software and access for LeadsOnline was provided by Baxter County without costs to those business owners.  Shane and Debbie Porter of Porter's Pawn & Bargain Center, Inc. of Mountain Home, Arkansas have generously come forward and donated $2238.00 to allow the Sheriff’s Office and area pawn shops to continue utilizing this system for another year.

     LeadsOnline is the nation’s largest online investigation system used by law enforcement to recover stolen property, help stop Meth makers, reduce metal theft, and solve crimes.  The LeadsOnline database has hundreds of millions transactions in their database that can be accessed by law enforcement and participating businesses nationwide.

     The LeadsOnline system has proven instrumental in providing evidence to help solve many burglaries, thefts, and break-ins in Baxter County since the Sheriff’s Office and area pawn shops began utilizing it. 

     The Sheriff’s Office is also pleased to announce a service that LeadsOnline can provide to all citizens of Baxter County.  For persons residing in Baxter County, LeadsOnline provides a system for maintaining secure records of personal property they own.  People may store serial numbers, item descriptions, pictures, and scans of receipts so their items may be more easily identified in the event of theft or loss.  These records may come in handy when reporting loss to insurance providers. 

     For persons interested in taking advantage of this new tool, they may go online to the LeadsOnline website at www.leadsonline.com and select the “Citizen Inventory System” block at the top right of the home page and create a new account.  Residents may only utilize this system to enter personal property and descriptors for their property.  Residents will not have access to the law enforcement functions or be able to search for stolen property.  The secure “Citizen Inventory System” is simply designed for use as an inventory tool to provide information to law enforcement agencies and insurance providers in the event of a theft or loss.  The Sheriff’s Office suggests that those persons with an interest in using this tool visit the LeadsOnline website for more information.

     The Sheriff’s Office wishes to express its appreciation and gratitude to Shane and Debbie Porter for their generous donation to keep the LeadsOnline system available for another year.

/s/ John F. Montgomery,
Baxter County Sheriff