Pawn-shop law update good idea for homeowners

One of the most unfortunate consequences of the methamphetamine epidemic is the rise in property crimes. As addicts have considered the source of their next fix, burglary, increasingly, has become a favored means of raising a quick buck.

In recent weeks and months, as law enforcement agencies and the judicial system have struggled to keep up with the rash of burglaries in the area, homeowners have begun to organize neighborhood watch programs to do what they can to keep their homes, families and possessions safe. Still, the burglaries persist.

An old state law governing pawn shops and second-hand stores may hold the key to a solution. Wasilla Police Department investigator Doug Sonerholm is trying to get the law updated to mandate uniform recording practices of pawn-shop transactions with the intent of making electronic pawn-shop databases compatible with national and state police databases.

By so doing, stolen property could be traced to its seller, which, in turn, would make burglary a much less attractive means of getting a hold of some cash. Sonerholm says that cities nationwide, where access to these databases exist, have seen an 80-percent rise in the rate of solved thefts.

While we are sympathetic to the extra work this may create for owners and operators of pawn and second-hand shops, this kind of success rate should not be ignored. It should be evidence enough to spark the needed changes.

Such a law change may have an inconsequential effect on meth abuse overall. But its potential effect on the social costs of that abuse make it worthy of consideration.