Police to employ database, new city law to help them stop sales of stolen metals

July 21, 2006

By Mary Jimenez

One of the first calls Bossier City businessman Josh Blackburn made Thursday morning after learning his shop had been robbed was to a scrap metal dealer.

About 1,400 pounds of truck radiator cores were stolen after storm winds overnight blew his radiator shop's side doors open.

It turned out to be a valuable call for the owner of Blackburn Radiator Shop, who just 90 minutes later stood next to 771 pounds of truck radiator cores at General Scrap Material Co. in Shreveport -- cores stolen from his shop.

"It's not everything, but I'm pretty pleased the way it all turned out. It will make the day go a little better," said Blackburn, who's used General Scrap for about 20 years for his business. "I called one other Shreveport scrap dealer, but they weren't very interested hearing my story."

After Blackburn's call to General Scrap, owner Tom Adams called Shreveport police and Blackburn when three men came in trying to sell what Adams suspected was stolen property.

No arrests have been made in the case that Shreveport and Bossier City detectives are investigating. But Bossier City spokesman Mark Natalie said "there is a possibility that, in the future, we could issue warrants for stolen property in regard to these individuals."

The case highlights the importance of cooperation and education between the public, scrap metal dealers and business owners, says Detective Roger Courtney, who manages the pawn/scrap yard unit of Shreveport police's property crimes division. "I think that the public is just now, in the past months, being educated about scrap metal crimes. There might be 10 percent of businesses that realize their stolen goods are going to scrap dealers. Courtney has seen his caseload of crimes involving stolen property sold to scrap yards go up 60 percent to 65 percent in the past year, with about one-third of those going unsolved each year. Cooperation is one type of proactive measure that can stop this type of crime, and others are also in place, he said. The Shreveport Fire Department is working with police and writing citations for burning inside the city limits, which deters thieves who are trying to get rid of insulation on wiring. Scrap metal dealers won't take wiring with insulation. All foot traffic at scrap metal yards has been eliminated. Legitimate dealers require name, vehicle description and license plate number. Police are also looking for and shutting down illegal scrap dealers who deal with thieves on the street. The most recent deterrent for this type of crime is city Ordinance 42-122, which Courtney helped write, that will go into effect Aug. 20. The law requires scrap metal dealers to submit daily reports electronically to Shreveport police through l.e.a.d.s. (Law Enforcement Automated Database System) Online. l.e.a.d.s.online operates an electronic database used by law enforcement agencies to identify stolen merchandise and theft suspects. The inclusion of scrap dealers in the city law, already used for pawn shop dealers, comes more than a month after the arrests of 10 city employees for allegedly taking copper and other metals designated for city use and selling them to scrap yards and numerous other recent thefts, including $40,000 worth of metals and materials stolen from Camus Electric Co. from a construction site in Shreveport and $20,000 of materials taken from a construction site in the Martin Luther King Jr. area. The theft at Blackburn Radiator Shop follows these and a long list of others. When tracking stolen metals, timeliness is everything, Courtney said, and the new law helps in that respect. "When the ordinance is in place, I can go into my office first thing in the morning, get into my l.e.a.d.s.online and look at yesterday's transaction," he said. "For example, if I look at a large transaction, then do a search for that individual's name and they've never been there before, it makes me real curious." Scrap dealers have mixed feelings about the law. Adams' argument is that dealers already cooperate with police and the law might force them to hold onto thousands of pounds of a commodity for several days.
	"The price of material changes daily, sometimes by 10 (percent) or 15 percent," Adams said, adding that he would have preferred being contacted for other suggestions before the law went to a vote. "The City Council did not contact (scrap metal dealers). They just jumped in and decided this would be the best way because it's already being used for pawn shops." Shreveport scrap metal dealers already send weekly reports of their daily transactions -- with names, vehicle descriptions and license plate numbers -- to the Police Department. Courtney said the new law is not requiring anything the state doesn't already request. "The state says scrap yards must hold items in their same condition for 10 days. And then they leave it up to me to enforce it. Unless I see a problem, I haven't and I won't make them keep everything for 10 days."

What the new law does for Courtney's unit is eliminate the weekly throng of paperwork that can include up to 2,000 transactions, not alphabetized or in any particular order, from the three legitimate scrap metal dealers in Shreveport. "It's impossible to do that in any short period of time or with any accuracy. This has everyone using the same language." Pawn brokers already using l.e.a.d.s.online have only one complaint about the system. "There's disparity," said Craig Keys, who co-owns the four Max's Pawn shops with his brother Michael. Both are third-generation pawn dealers. "I personally like the law; it protects me and the community," Craig Keys said. "But we're buying only a fraction of what's being sold out there. There are hundreds of other second-time-around shops, antique shops and jewelers that buy everything for cash, a handshake and a smile. I just feel it should be uniformly administered." Copyright 2006© The Times. (LeadsOnline Client – Shreveport, LA Police Department)