A proposal to require pawn shops and precious metal dealers to make daily reports of items bought to local law enforcement cleared its first hurdle today.
The Public Service Committee set a public hearing for 7 p.m., June 12, which is required before a proposal can become law.
The 10 businesses local officials believe will be directly impacted by the proposed law will receive direct notification of the meeting.
Det. Sgt. Pat Corona and Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster joined District Attorney Lawrence Friedman in presenting the proposal to the legislative committee.
The law covers any business that takes in metal of value -- whether it's a gold dealer or pawn shop handling gold and silver or a scrap dealer recycling iron and copper.
It doesn't cover second-hand dealers that don't buy and resell metal, though a pawn shop that buys gold would need to record and report all of its purchase transactions.
Pawn shops are already required to record the identity of sellers, but the new law would also require them to file a daily report with the Sheriff's Office.
"If we're given a description of somebody that we know is a thief and has recently turned in some gold rings and we can relate that to a recent crime, it's going to help us tremendously to recover the property," Brewster said.
Both Brewster and Corona said that over the years, as pawn brokers have come and gone, they've found some who are easy to work with and others who were quite clearly willing to take and dispose of stolen property quickly.
The law would help with those who seem to know they're buying stolen goods.
"We had a recent residential burglary and because we had a good relationship (with a local broker), we were able to quickly put a case together and make an arrest for burglary in the second degree," Corona said. "If we have a good relationship, fine, it works out, but it depends on who is running the establishment. I've had some experiences where the relationship wasn't that good. This would take that element out of it because there would be a requirement that you provide a report to the Sheriff's Office."
Friedman said the proposed law went though four drafts -- though no local shop owners were consulted during that process. It's designed to deal with very specific kinds of second-hand brokers.
Those business owners will be given their chance to chime in on the new law at the June 12 public hearing.
