South Snohomish County Crime Watch Hot Sheet: CATALYTIC CONVERTER THEFT

With the dramatic increase in catalytic converter thefts reported in Washington State over the last few years, the legislature is considering two bills in an attempt to at least reduce the thefts- HB 1815 in the House and SB 5495 in the Senate.

HB1815 would set up a tracking pilot project to deter catalytic converter theft through the use of VIN’s or other unique identifiers. The Washington State Patrol would establish a program to mark catalytic converters with unique identifiers, such as VIN’s. It would also establish a catalytic converter theft task force, coordinated by the Washington State Patrol, to study state laws as they relate to catalytic converter thefts and to make recommendations to the legislature.

SB 5495 would prohibit scrap dealers from buying catalytic converters except from commercial businesses and vehicle owners. It sets up detailed record keeping requirements including the VIN’s of vehicles that the catalytic converters were taken from among other requirements. Cash payments would be delayed by at least five days. Also, any dealer who knowingly purchases or receives a stolen catalytic converter could be charged with a misdemeanor.

SB 5495 is fashioned after a similar Oregon law that takes affect this year.

Comment- Put together, the proposed bills take a two-pronged approach to reducing catalytic converter thefts. The first is to mark catalytic converters so that they can be identified as stolen. For example, the license number and the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) helps police identify your car as stolen. While the VIN can help recover whole vehicles, marking the catalytic converter with the VIN, can help identify it as stolen and help police put together a criminal case against a catalytic converter thief.

The second approach is to place responsibility on scrap dealers to ensure that they are not taking stolen goods plus to set down record keeping requirements that potentially can help police in a theft investigation. The Senate bill places its emphasis on commercial scrap dealers. The record keeping requirements will no doubt make it more difficult for thieves to unload their stolen converters at scrap yards. It may force catalytic converter thieves to sell their stolen converters to other buyers, such as unscrupulous scrap dealers, through markets on the internet, to out of state buyers, or even out of country buyers. Criminals are often very flexible and change how they operate to methods that are less risky (for them).

This is what happened with meth. During the early part of the 21^st century, there was an epidemic of local meth labs that used common chemicals including chemicals found in common cold medications. The Federal Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 restricted the access of cold medicines. Back yard meth labs soon closed down due to the difficulty in obtaining pseudoephedrine. However, Mexican gangs have taken up the slack by making their own meth and distributing it throughout the U.S.

While catalytic converter thieves will probably change their methods, passage of these two bills will probably help to reduce catalytic converter thefts.

Project CATCON ID- The Everett Police Department has announced another Project CATCON ID event to be held on Saturday January 29^th from 10:00am to 2:00pm. The location of the event will be Sno-Isle Tech, 9001 Airport Rd, Everett, WA 98204. Project CATCON ID helps vehicle owners engrave the last 8 digits of the VIN onto their catalytic converter. If the catalytic converter is stolen, the vehicle owner can give the VIN to police when reporting the theft. The VIN can be helpful in an investigation to prove that the catalytic converter was indeed stolen.

Everett Police Department:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=307357098103093&set=a.225832992922171&__cft__[0]=AZUjrjuLiMBZhrZimNFhzRx5RFBIqwIY4LRx9hA0o4xKYOmMIM9-nTF4bV0sroV2MCwm1Jropz3vL8aKp5dPyZEGNim2jUpqTUrj9h9_StdGFFG7mSUvnwMJyPh9y-WxRW1xiYD4S7g4c-6yp60ZcDg5&__tn__=EH-R

For more information about the bills and to track their progress through the legislature, check out the following links,

HB 1815:

https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=1815&Year=2021&Initiative=false

SB 5495:

https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5495&Year=2021&Initiative=false

KING TV:

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/bill-task-force-solutions-catalytic-converter-thefts-washington-state/281-d6a0adf2-9e4a-4d35-8eb5-9a95dbe6446c

https://www.king5.com/article/news/politics/catalytic-converter-thefts-proposed-washington-law/281-2afdd7de-add1-4a5f-b30b-2bea12b64e38

KOMO TV:

https://komonews.com/news/local/senator-proposes-new-bill-targeting-catalytic-converter-thefts