February 13, 2012
OLYMPIA—The House today united against a metal-theft crime wave that is socking businesses and endangering lives, voting 94-3 for tougher penalties and an action plan proposed by state Rep. Roger Goodman.
“Farmers, businesses and nearly every utility in the nation have been hit by a soaring number of increasingly brazen metal thefts,” said Goodman (D-Kirkland). “We clearly need to work together for better answers.
“This issue is about more than the value of the stolen metals,” Goodman said. “Power outages and metal-theft electrocutions are increasingly threatening public safety.”
According to Puget Sound Energy spokesperson Nancy Wood, 97 percent of the nation’s utilities were hit by metal thefts in 2010. The damage included 29 deaths and more than $50 million of stolen copper—not including the costs of repairs and interruptions in service.
Puget Sound Energy alone was hit with about 50 burglaries at substations over a 12-month period beginning in summer, 2010. “It puts our customers and our employees at risk, creating potentially hazardous situations in our substations and across the system,” Wood said.
Karla Salp, speaking for the Washington Coalition of Crime Victim Advocates, told a public hearing on Goodman’s bill that farmers are also being increasingly victimized by metal thefts.
Salp told of one farmer who can no longer get insurance because his irrigation systems have already been hit three times by metal thieves.
Goodman’s House Bill 2570 stiffens penalties by ensuring that the cost of any damage resulting from a metal theft is added to the value of the stolen metal when determining sentences.
The bill also creates a task force to bring together law enforcement, scrap metal dealers, and the major players who are bearing the brunt of the metal theft crime wave. No state funds will go to the task force, which will be funded entirely by the stakeholders.
“Penalties alone won’t stop metal thieves,” said Goodman. “We need the task force to generate new strategies for coordinating efforts to prevent the crimes and identify metal as stolen.”
Goodman said that bringing diverse stakeholders to the same table led to many of the ideas in the successful drunk driving and domestic-violence reforms he has passed in recent years.
“Listening to people on all sides of issues is the best way to get the best policies with the fewest unintended consequences,” Goodman said.
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For interviews:
Rep. Roger Goodman: (360) 786-7878