The Pacifica Police Department Leverages CrimeTracer to Solve Check Fraud Investigation

More than 16 years ago, the Pacifica Police Department had no way of knowing whether a suspect was in another county or another state other than by making phone calls or reaching out to other departments. In 2009, members of the department began using COPLINK (now CrimeTracer) in their investigations to access detailed information with consolidated investigative leads from law enforcement agencies in the region and beyond. They have remained loyal and committed to the search engine and information platform ever since.

In 2023, when Detective Corporal Brandon Smith was assigned to investigate a check fraud scheme, he discovered the usefulness of CrimeTracer immediately.

In the check fraud scheme incident, the suspect used a local check cashing business and obtained several thousand dollars. As a result, Detective Smith used CrimeTracer to conduct a background check and learn more about the suspect, including prior cases documented by other police agencies and law enforcement jurisdictions, which he would have never otherwise discovered.

Upon conducting further investigation, Detective Smith was able to locate a previous police report from an agency over 400 miles away in Southern California in which the suspect completed the same check cashing scam. With this information, Detective Smith created a statewide crime bulletin regarding the suspect’s modus operandi. Several police agencies from other counties began reaching out as a result, advising they had recently taken similar fraudulent check cashing reports. With the continued use of CrimeTracer, Detective Smith was able to locate several reports from police agencies throughout the state.

Once the suspect was arrested, Detective Smith learned that the discovery of these additional police reports, thanks to CrimeTracer, ultimately helped build a very strong case against the suspect.