Property Security - How to help us help you.

Property Security

Gloucestershire police are currently working to help the public make their property identifiable when it is recovered. We are advising the owners to register their property with a free service available to them.

The National Property Register, or NMPR, is run by Immobilise and is a free service endorsed by the Home Office and used by police forces across the country. It works by the owner recording the property details on their database, and allows the police to search the database when property is recovered.
Any items with a serial number can be registered, including:-

• cycles
• mobile telephones 
• televisions 
• laptops 

In fact anything with a serial number can be added. Should the item be recovered the police can trace the owner using the serial number.

This is currently being used in the Cheltenham and Tewkesbury division to record the details of cycles being sold by retail outlets, where the purchaser is advised to visit www.immobilise.com to register themselves, or fill in a form in the shop which will be passed to police to carry out the registration on their behalf. They are also advised to mark the property with an Ultra Violet (UV) pen or Smartwater, which is a very quick way to make the items even more identifiable.

Police Community Support Officer Kim Graham of the Cheltenham Town Centre SCT says 'We have a large number of cycles and other property recovered which we cannot identify, and we would like to be able to return them to there rightful owners. If the public used this scheme it would help us a great deal in being able to return those items.

Cheltenham Police also offer the opportunity for losers of cycles to visit Lansdown Road police station on the second Saturday of the month, between 9 am and 2 pm, to view our recovered cycles to try and identify their stolen one. You must bring with you your crime letter or crime number in order to be able to do this, and you will also be offered the chance to register with NMPR and have your cycle coded with a UV pen. Crime prevention advice will also be given if required.

Owners of cycles are reminded to use a good quality lock (take advice from your dealer), always lock their cycle to a cycle rack or immovable object and remove detachable parts and leave it in a busy well lit area. When at home always keep your cycle out of site, and lock it to a wall bracket or ground anchor, as a high percentage of cycles being stolen are from sheds and garages.

The message we would like to give is help us to help you by carrying out these quick, easy and simple steps.