Gateway Centre 13th November 10am-1pm

Severus Social Club, Milner Street, 30th November 1pm-3pm

Property Marking and an opportunity to raise issues with the local policing team.

Dot peen property marking

York Police have invested in the top-of-the-range “dot peen” property marking machines, and are offering the service free to York residents.

Every year, police recover hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of stolen property from the hands of criminals, but all too often there is no way of identifying its rightful owners. Being able to trace the ownership of the property not only helps people get the property back, but it can also provide evidence that is vital in securing convictions.

Dot peen marking involves using a tungsten carbide-tipped pin to indent an object with dots to create a visible, permanent unique number. The unique number will be entered onto the national Immobilise property register database, vastly increasing the chances that it will be reunited with its owner if it is lost or stolen.

The new machines in York can mark at a speed of two characters per second, to an accuracy of 0.006mm, and can be used on everything from steel and aluminium to plastic.

They have been funded by North Yorkshire Police, the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire, and Safer York Partnership.

While other methods of property marking, such as UV marker pens or forensically-coded liquid, can also be very effective in reuniting property with its rightful owners, the visual deterrent of a permanently marked serial number alone could be enough to deter would-be thieves.

Dot peen marking is suitable for everything from bikes and garden tools to PlayStations and laptop computers (however mobile phones are likely to be too delicate)