Avon and Somerset Constabulary has signed up to a new national database for mobile equipment – and is urging you to do the same.
The force is signing up to MEND, the Mobile Equipment National Database, a free web-based, on-line, facility.
It allows the owners of mobile phones and other electrical equipment, such as iPODS, MP3 players, hand-held and desktop computers, to register their contact details and intrinsic identifiers of the item, such as the make, model serial or mobile phone IMEI numbers.
More than 2,000 mobile phones, laptops and other devices are lost or stolen in the UK every day.
Half of all street crime – and 11 per cent of all crime – nationally involves a mobile phone with 30 per cent of all street crime involving only mobile phones.
Tens of thousands of these items are recovered but are never returned to their rightful owners, due to difficulty in tracing that person.
The MEND system is the first and, currently, only national database which allows police to instantly ascertain whether an individual is in possession of lost or stolen equipment registered on the system.
MEND is a simple-to-use, secure system, similar to those used in on-line banking facilities, the force says.
Only properly authorised police personnel will have access to the system for ‘interrogation’ and crime detection purposes.
Action on Street Crime co-ordinator, Sergeant Caroline Howard, said: “At present, without conducting extensive enquiries, details of stolen or found property are usually only available to officers within a prescribed police force boundary.
“The MEND database addresses this anomaly, allowing for fast repatriation of lost or stolen property.
“This crime prevention initiative will assist in the recovery of lost or stolen mobile phones and electrical equipment, preventing loss of important data and providing valuable assistance to police in the arrest and detection of offenders.
“A number of phone companies are now automatically registering people who are buying mobile phones at the point of sale.”
Anyone who wants to register their mobile phones or electrical devices, free of charge, should log onto www.menduk.org or text the word MEND followed by the IMEI number, first name, last name, postcode, non-mobile contact number and house name or number to 87222.
To find your IMEI number key *#06# into your phone.
PS Howard said: “With Christmas fast-approaching and many mobile phones and other high-value devices being given as gifts, our signing up to this database provides us with a chance to give some timely crime prevention advice to the public.
“We would strongly recommend that people follow our lead by registering all their own equipment on the system.”
There are more than ten million devices now registered on the database.
MEND is one of three databases collectively known as the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit (NMPCU) register.
SEND (Stolen Equipment National Database) holds record details of phones reported stolen, including downloads of crime reports from many forces.
CEIR is the Central Equipment Identity Register, the industry database which stores details of all phones reported as lost or stolen or blocked.
