Online technology leads to home invasion arrest

An 18-year-old Rochester Hills man was arrested and charged with home invasion after police utilized a new online system that helps law enforcement to identify and recover stolen property. The system called LeadsOnline, which the Courts Law Enforcement Management Information System (CLEMIS) began providing to its member agencies this past month, led detectives to a pawn shop where they were able to connect Peter Difranco with items stolen in a home invasion. "Oakland County has a national reputation for using technology to improve services to residents, including law enforcement," Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said. "CLEMIS and LeadsOnline together will be a very powerful tool for our investigators." CLEMIS is a model law enforcement consortium for the rest of the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Troy Police pulled over a car in which Difranco was a passenger. The vehicle contained a large amount of jewelry. Suspecting the jewelry may be stolen, Troy Police contacted Oakland County Sheriff's Detective Howard Weir who was investigating some home invasions in Rochester Hills. Weir asked Auburn Hills Police to run DiFranco through LeadsOnline. Investigators determined Difranco had pawned several jewelry items at the Check N Gold on Rochester Road in Rochester Hills. A few days later, Waterford Township Police contacted Detective Weir to advise him they had identified a guitar at one of their local pawn shops as having been stolen out of Rochester Hills. Difranco had pawned the guitar. With the combined evidence discovered through LeadsOnline, DiFranco was arraigned earlier this month via video from the Oakland County Jail for a home invasion in the 1800 block of Ludgate Lane in Rochester Hills. Oakland County 52-3 District Court Magistrate Marie Soma gave Difranco a $15,000 cash surety bond. He remains in custody at this time. "CLEMIS continues to be an invaluable tool for our member law enforcement agencies," said Novi Police Chief David Molloy, CLEMIS chairperson. "CLEMIS enables investigators to access a lot of law enforcement data in order to solve crimes more quickly and to identify trends." LeadsOnline also offers a free online service called ReportIt. Local residents can catalogue information about their valuables by setting up a free online account at reportit.leadsonline.com. If there is a break in, residents can print the information from any computer with internet access and give it to police. Having identifiable information about valuables readily available will help police track property if it is stolen or goes missing. Published: Mon, Apr 29, 2013

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