Regional Pawn Database Sharing System: A Lesson in Collaboration

It wasn’t just the 1,300 cases solved in the first six months of operation or the recovery of several million dollars’ worth of stolen property that led to the selection of the Washington (D.C.) Regional Pawn Data Sharing System as one of the 2006 IACP Excellence in Technology award winners. It was also the unprecedented collaboration among 19 local law enforcement agencies in two states and the District of Columbia. This column describes the collaborative effort and the building processes that led to the implementation of such a valuable law enforcement tool.