ATHABASCA – The Athabasca RCMP are aiming to tackle ongoing property crime problems from a new lens, thanks to a Florida company that helps rightful owners prove property was stolen.
In a May 13 presentation to Athabasca County councillors, Sgt. Gavin Bergey gave the public officials the run-down on a project he’s hoping to pilot: ProTech DNA.
“They’ve created a system that’s a forensic property marking system with microdot technology. There are tiny, microscopic nickel dots, and each dot has a unique pin number that is attached to that package,” said Bergey.
“It allows the owner of property to mark it without it being seen by the general public, and only the owner knows where the marking is.”
Bergey said the markings allow the RCMP to definitively prove recovered items were stolen, a task that can be otherwise difficult when the item in question doesn’t come with a bill of sale.
After the owners mark the property — each kit can mark 60 to 75 items — they can upload the information into a North America-wide database that the RCMP can access and can compare against items they suspect might be stolen.
“Vehicles have VIN numbers, but as we saw here in December, VIN numbers get scratched off. If the user applies this to a side-by-side and that gets stolen, if we find the side-by-side with the VIN scratched off, we can see that ProTech DNA has been used and we can tie it back to the owner,” he said.
Proving that property is in fact stolen is a key requirement in charging individuals post arrest. Recent cases, including the December bust of an illegal chop shop that Bergey referenced, have hit roadblocks when the RCMP have been unable to prove beyond a doubt that an item doesn’t belong to the individual they found it with.
“We’ll do a search warrant on a rural property, recover a bunch of stuff, usually tools, chainsaws, weed eaters, and we know they’re stolen but we can’t prove it. With this, we can use the scanner, go into the database, and now the person we found it with gets charged with possession of property obtained by crime,” said Bergey.
The company is just expanding into Alberta, with the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo being the only users Bergey was aware of in the province. While it hasn’t been extensively tested in Canadian courts, it has had success in American ones, although Bergey acknowledged the differences between the two countries.
Nothing is official yet, but if the RCMP go ahead with the plan, be on the lookout for advertising from the detachment as well as Athabasca County and other municipal partners.
“This is a really neat forensic way of being able to not only help yourselves, but also help the public as well,” said Reeve Tracy Holland.
