Living in the residence halls with hundreds of other students can present a risk of theft. To combat this risk, University Police continues to offer a preventative program to students living on campus, especially in residence halls.

“Operation ID” is a program that involves two steps to prevent your valuables from being stolen, and helps to recover them if they are.

The program was created 12 years ago, but has begun to be “better advertised just recently,” said NIU Police Lt. Matt Kiederlen.

If students have valuable belongings they feel are likely to be stolen, they can check out an engraver from the front desk at Lincoln or Neptune Halls. Engravers are loaned out to students with proper identification and are checked out by the hour. Students can also take their belongings to the University Police Station, located next to University Health Services, where an officer will engrave the items.

Students should engrave their driver’s license number onto any items they want to protect. NIU police also recommend making a list of all the items engraved, especially more expensive electronics such as televisions, computers and stereos.

“It is a good idea to make a list of all your items, especially those that people tend to gravitate toward,” Kiederlen said. “These descriptions [and engravings] help us to search for them and makes them easier to trace when they are missing.”

Items reported stolen or missing are entered into a statewide database, and when an item is found or located, it is matched up with its respective driver’s license number. This prevents otherwise identical items from being delivered to the wrong owner.

Some students are still unaware this service is available to them.

“No, I’ve never heard of it,” freshman nursing major Lindsay Betourne said. “I think it is a good idea, I just don’t know how [engraving your belongings] would help the police find them [if they are stolen].”