The Construction Industry Crime Prevention Program of the Pacific Northwest and the National Equipment Registry have formed a partnership

Pipeline & Gas Journal, April, 2003

The Construction Industry Crime Prevention Program of the Pacific Northwest (CICP) and the National Equipment Registry (NER) have formed a partnership to help contractors prevent and recover stolen equipment.

At the 7th CICP annual awards Luncheon, Glen Sider, operations director of NER, and Karen Blythe, executive director of CICP, explained to attendees how registering their equipment with NER, a national database used by law enforcement to identify the equipment owners, can help in the recovery of stolen equipment.

In a seminar for the equipment managers, Sider explained how registration and NER decals showing the equipment is registered can help deter theft. A separate training session for local law enforcement was also conducted by NER to explain how NER's equipment experts and databases of stolen equipment and equipment ownership can help speed up and crack equipment investigations.

The keynote speaker at the awards was Multinomah District Attorney, Michael Shrunk, who explained that state budget problems will likely limit the resources that can be given to the detection and prosecution of equipment theft. Shrunk warned that the onus is now more than ever on contractors to strengthen their defenses against thieves. He also noted that the identification of the true owner through the marking and recording of equipment and tools is key to the process of indicating felons.

NER's equipment specialists maintain a national database of over 25,000 stolen equipment reports and access to over 7 million equipment ownership records.