Sheriff Gets Proactive in Metal Theft Investigations
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department will be implementing new procedures in its fight against an upswing in reported metal thefts.
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All over the Sacramento area–including Rosemont–metal is being stripped from schools, residences, businesses and sometimes from right off the streets. Now Sacramento County Sheriff's Department is going to get out in front of this crime trend to curtail it in a way that hasn't yet been tried.
Traditional police work can be described as reacting to a situation when it occurs. This time out Sac Sheriff's Detective Todd Roe, with the assistance of the community crime prevention unit, intends on taking a more proactive approach in truncating the latest en vogue crime trend.
"My job right now is to handle the cases that come in and work the traditional police way, which is reacting to something," Roe said. "Another part of what I'm going to be trying to do is being proactive.'
A part of being proactive, Roe explained, will include working with area recyclers, educating them and helping them pay attention to what is going on.
That strategy "getting (recyclers) to feel comfortable with saying 'no,'" Roe said, will be just as important as apprehending the suspects with stolen metals.
"They're reasonable people," Roe said. "When you're in that business, if you don't want your business to come under criminal prosecution, you want to take the right steps."
Roe explained the new strategy is part of the department's program to encourage recycle centers to upload records of their purchases daily to sheriff's officials.
The heightened attention to the crimes come on the heels of the 2009 law to slow the pace of metal theft, and as Sac Sheriff Sgt. Chris Joachim pointed out, could serve as a reminder this isn't the first time Sacramento has been faced with similar crime trending.
"I recognize the public and the media think the simple issue is if we get rid of recyclers then we won't have this problem. It's not that simple," Joachim said. "I still think even if we shut down every recycler in the county, we'd still have metal theft."
It's not the first time Joachim's division has had to deal with an increase in metal theft and it's not likely to be the last.
"It's a problem for everyone, it really is," Roe said.
Joachim, Roe and the rest of the division will be working with a number of law enforcement agencies across the Sacramento area, including the District Attorney's Office in an effort to develop probationary periods for both offending buyers and sellers of stolen metals. Joachim will also work closely with the county, developing new ordinances and ensuring existing ones properly address the potential liabilities that exist between both the buyer and the seller.
"I have a meeting with some of the staff of a state senator to work with the legislature to ensure there are appropriate laws," Joachim said. "We'll be working with the D.A. to get probationary conditions placed on known and convicted metal thieves so they cannot possess recyclables."
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Brad
1:26 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Look, we need some laws for this. Roe and Joachim mentioned they were speaking to a Senator's (who?) staff, so that is some good news. This problem ain't going away. Our entire infrastructure is being stripped bare across the whole state - like rats eating at a carcass.
I found some of this information very enlightening. Roe is being forced to "encourage" recycle centers to upload their records everyday? That should be mandatory! We need to know where the "goods" are being unloaded, reputable recyclers will just do it, but regardless, it should be legally enforceable with VERY stiff fines in place to make sure it gets done. Of course we'll end up with fraud, but there are ways to beat the few times that it may happen.
And I don't understand why he is having to get the recyclers to "feel comfortable with saying, no". Maybe we need to institute a special business license procedure for Recycle operators (provided there isn't already one), and perform vigorous background checks on all employees, fingerprinting required, and no felony or theft related crimes permitted on their records or their employees. Comfortable? Heck, it used to be called being decent! If you suspect the merchandise is stolen, don't buy it! And then call the cops. What the hell is wrong with some of these people?!
Cody Kitaura
9:24 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Thanks for the comment, Brad. Do you think extremely large fines would be enough to deter would-be metal thieves?
Brad
1:41 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
No, no, Cody. You misunderstood my comment. A fine will certainly not deter metal thieves. They should go to jail - although sadly jail is not much of a determent nowadays. I was suggesting substantial fines for the Recycle Centers who did not report their daily records should it be required by law and therefore could be monitored by law enforcement once such a procedure became mandatory. There is probably little more we could to prevent the actual thieves. But if we made it more difficult for Recycle Centers to accept the stolen goods, the thieves will find it more difficult to unload the stolen material. Theoretically, if they can't sell the material (or if it was harder to do so), there would be less incentive to steal it. As it stands the Recycle Centers don't seem to care as long as there is a profit. If they were legally bound to report their intake then law enforcement could establish first, where they are unloading the goods, and second arrest those who are doing it. For "large" transactions we could even make it a requirement that all payments are done by mailed check, and a valid ID presented at time of sale, so that the cops will at least have an address on file if they need to follow-up.