POST CODING OF VALUABLE POSSESSIONS
In many police stations there are accumulations of previously stolen articles of value which have been recovered during police raids. A considerable number remain unclaimed. Those who have suffered loss have concluded at the time of the crime that their valuables have gone, never to be seen again, and therefore do not believe they can be recovered. Often the police cannot return them when recovered because they are unable to identify ownership.
Our Police Force together with the Central Body of Bedfordshire Home Watch have been requesting the post coding of valuable articles together with the house number as a cost effective measure for crime prevention to be adopted on as wider basis as is practical. Property which has been recovered by the police is always checked for post coding in order to determine whether it has been stolen as well as to identify ownership. The availability of a post code is strong evidence which can assist in establishing an arrest and an eventual conviction as well as ensuring owner recovery . By displaying a window notice indicating that post coding of valuable articles has been completed a thief may be deterred from entering a home.
Biddenham Home Watch has been developing procedures to encourage residents to post code their valuable articles. 2000 has seen the completion of the first of these attempts.
Funds which were donated by the Parish Council and the Biddenham Show have been used to purchase two boxes of engraving tools. Each contained:-
1). A power tool which can be equipped with heads suitable for the engraving of plastic, wood, metal and glass.
2). Hand held engraving tools capable of achieving the same as in 1). above.
3). Invisible ink pens for non-destructive marking available at £1.00 each - these monies being donated to the central body of Bedfordshire Home Watch.
4). A battery operated U/V scanner for either viewing the results of using the invisible ink pens or for assessing work carried out on previous occasions.
These two boxes have been made available to Biddenham Street Coordinators on a rota basis throughout the year - the rota was published in the Biddenham Bulletin. As the year has progressed and as more street groups have been formed these resources have been found to be just sufficient to ensure the availability of the boxes to each coordinator for a period of two/three weeks, the time being dependent on the number of residents in each group.
On receipt of the box each Street Co-coordinator has notified his/her members of its availability by distributing in advance a pre-printed pro-forma. Residents have been asked to indicate their requirement or otherwise by return enabling the allocation of the box to be determined by household, date and time period. Residents have then progressed their own marking and engraving requirements.
The need to post code equipment stored in the garden shed ( e.g.: power tools and lawn mowers), bikes, as well as those articles which are in the house has been emphasized.
Because residents may be reluctant to mark more delicate articles such as jewellery by any of the above methods a system involving the use of a digital camera is available. The Street Coordinator must be contacted if this facility is required.
