HAMMOND | Victims of theft have a better chance of seeing justice served -- and reclaiming their stolen property -- through a nationwide Internet database now available to police.

LeadsOnline, an information clearinghouse located in Texas, tracks transactions at pawn shops, secondhand stores, gun dealers and eBay storefronts across the country and makes the data instantly accessible to law enforcement.

Hammond police are scheduled to start using the service early in July.

"This new technology will significantly streamline our investigations," police spokesman Sgt. Michael Jorden said.

Detectives no longer will have to physically visit pawn shops, Jorden said, and spend hours pouring over individual receipts looking for suspects' names and missing items. Instead, they can log in at the site.

"If a house in Woodmar is burglarized and a 46-inch plasma TV is taken," Jorden said, "we'll know if it's been pawned in California -- and by whom."

Hammond police will join more than 1,000 municipalities that are part of the system, which was launched in 2000.

The city's lone pawn shop is already connected, Jorden said, as well as most other area firms and all the major nationwide chains.

There is no cost to participating businesses, which upload details of their days' transactions to LeadsOnline servers at the end of each day. Law enforcement agencies pay an access fee of $9,000 a year to use the system.

"With the first burglary or homicide cleared up through LeadsOnline, the service will have paid for itself," Jorden said.

The system also is linked to the federal Homeland Security database of known terrorists and drug dealers.

Hammond police are currently working with the City Council to draft a new ordinance that would require resale businesses in the city to participate in the nationwide listing, Jorden said.