Missoula Changes Pawnshop Reporting Rules, Shop Owners Celebrate

Monday night, July 20, was a big win for Riverside Pawn owners Brian and Ericka Hughes, who have been in non-compliance with city of Missoula ordinance that required them to submit their client’s personal data to a cloud-based storage system called Leads Online.

"Leads Online is a third-party, for-profit, private corporation that stores transactional data in the cloud," said Ericka. "Its purported use is to help in the recovery of stolen merchandise that might come through pawn shops on a national level. I think the intent of leadsonline is good, but I think it also compromised our customer's privacy, which is our first and primary concern."

Riverside Pawn continued to submit data to the police department, but did not want client information going to a server that could be potentially hacked. Missoula city council changed its policy on Monday and Ericka says the change is a win-win for everyone.

"The compromise that was reached really was just the best case scenario for everybody involved. It allows the pawnbrokers the opportunity to give the police department a written election, requesting the redaction of that private information. So the item details will still be uploaded online, but our clients private information will remain off of the database."

Right now, Flathead County is undergoing a similar debate on the use of Leads online. The Kalispell Police Department is currently using it, but some local pawnshops are urging county commissioners to resist expanding the use of Leads Online.