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Stolen Property Tracking Bill Passes in House
HB 472 Would Help Police Recover Goods from Secondhand Shops

(JUNEAU) - The Alaska House passed a bill today that will help local police departments and the Alaska State Troopers identify thieves and return stolen items to the rightful owners.

"One of my constituents had a number of items stolen, and while the police had an idea the items were taken to another community to be sold, they didn't have the manpower to leave Anchorage and go look for the property," said Rep. Joe Green (R-Anchorage), sponsor of House Bill 472. "This bill would solve this problem for police officers across the state by requiring that dealer's transaction records be sent to their local law enforcement agencies every other week."

Current Alaska statutes require that all secondhand dealers, including pawnbrokers, record any items that they purchase or take in pawn or trade, along with the name and address of the person selling or pawning the item. These records are open to law enforcement agencies, but the time consuming process of going to individual stores and paging through bound ledgers is prohibitive.

HB 472 makes a number of changes to statute in addition to requiring the semimonthly reports:

• Only requires reporting of items with a serial number, a resale value of $75 or more, or items in lots of 10 or more, excluding books
• Requires that a description of the seller be noted, so that they could still be identified even if they use false identification
• Allows the option of keeping records on a computer instead of in the bound ledger specified in statute
• Requires items pawnbrokers purchase from individuals to be held for 30 days to allow law enforcement agencies the time to review transaction records

"I know that dealers don't want to accept stolen items into their stores, but even with ID checks and affidavits of ownership some stolen goods get through," said Green. "I think this bill will benefit store owners because if the word on the street is that the police are reviewing transaction records, thieves will be less likely to go to legitimate business owners."

HB 472 moves next to the Senate for consideration.

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