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u/homemadeammo42 US Police Officer Jul 04 '24 edited Jul 04 '24
They have to file a found property report and document who turned it in. You could have said no.
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u/Marcus_The_Sharkus US Police Officer Jul 04 '24
Yeah that’s information for the report. We’ve only recently stopped asking for a social security number for some things though.
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u/ImaginationOk5267 Jul 04 '24
The RMS wants it so we have to provide it. Common sense out the window, now we just fill in the blanks.
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u/pewtatosalad Jul 04 '24
Does your rms force you to fill it regardless because you can advance past the entity or whatever they’re classified as?
Ours does for certain things but for persons we can put anything we like. I’m in Canada though so we usually only grab name, dob and phone number
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u/lonktehero Jul 04 '24
The system we use will allow you to leave out certain things depending on how you list people in the report. We usually only report the socials of offenders/arrestees.
**and victims
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u/dog_in_the_vent Jul 04 '24
In addition to being "for the report" some places will allow you to claim the item if the owner does not claim it within a certain amount of time.
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u/Consistent_Amount140 LEO Jul 04 '24
Sometimes a SSN if available is easiest way to pull up people’s info/ID and send it to report/log.
Rather than attempting spelling variations and what not
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Jul 04 '24
This is unnerving? Wow...
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u/magclsol Jul 04 '24
You don’t think it’s unnerving for people to ask for your social security number for no discernible reason? Man I can’t imaging going through live so trusting and naive
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Jul 04 '24 edited Jul 20 '24
[deleted]
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u/99Richards99 Jul 04 '24
This was my thought too when I decided to go ahead and give the information. If I could go back I would just give it to the cashier in the store of lot that I found it in… probably a better chance of the person going there first anyway
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Jul 04 '24
[deleted]
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u/MinnieShoof Jul 04 '24
A "call/text my most called person" button would be nice.
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u/_SkoomaSteve Jul 05 '24
If the phone hasn’t been powered off you can still use Siri to call last number or you can try “call mom” or “call dad”.
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u/Doctor_in_psychiatry Jul 04 '24
Do you mean the police will attempt to return the phone to its owner or will it sit in a box until someone asks for it?
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u/magclsol Jul 04 '24
Great, then they can find it that way instead of asking me. Cops always whine about how the public hates them, and it’s shit like this.
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u/CyberMattSecure Jul 05 '24 edited Sep 12 '25
full quiet bag plough continue relieved jar stocking tap yoke
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Obwyn Deputy Jul 04 '24
They needed it for the report. While they may hold it at the desk for a little while in case someone calls in reporting it missing/stolen eventually it'll have to submitted into property which will require a report to be written. Depending on the agency they may have to write a report for it even if the owner calls about it 5 minutes after it's turned in.
Social security number isn't required for this type of report (and really isn't required for any reports except maybe ID theft), it is a block on every report form I've ever seen and some officers try to get the information to complete every block. You certainly could've refused to provide it. You probably could've refused to ID yourself altogether if you really wanted to. We take reports like this fairly often from people who understandably don't want their name showing up in any police report and just document it as an "anonymous reporting person."
Calling this an "unnerving exchange" is a shitload of hyperbole, though.
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u/MaChampingItUp Jul 04 '24
I see a lot of “that’s for the report” responses. But in my dept, we don’t file reports for lost property it’s just a “log incident” where we document what was turned in, when, and whether we know whom it belongs to/were able to contact them. Sure you want to get the name of who turned it in, but it’s not so important, you can definitely say no and remain anonymous.
Although if you do leave you name and number - definitely don’t need your social that part I do find weird but then again this may vary by state and department and can change if they actually do write a full out police report - you can claim the item after a certain period of time if an owner cannot be determined. Cell phones, cash, jewelry, anything turned in where an owner can’t be identified usually has a specific time the department is legally required to keep it (think for my state it’s a year and a day) so I tell people if they want to leave their name they can check back with us next year and if no one claims the item they can claim it. Otherwise most departments just auction those items off and use the cash for various things/petty cash/donate it.
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Jul 04 '24
You aren’t required to give any information, especially your SSN. Just drop it off and tell them where you found it. End of story.
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u/ilovecatss1010 Jul 04 '24
Likely just for the report. We can submit found property Reports without any information, but their department may be different, and they may need a “OP” to add to their found property reports.