Property-tracking legislation stalls in Juneau

MAT-SU -- One of the bills that is dead in the water and will likely wait for next year to be revived would have allowed police looking for stolen property to comb through a data-base built by pawn shops and second-hand dealers statewide.

Current laws already require second-hand dealers and pawn shops to keep an inventory and make it accessible to police and troopers. House Bill 66 would make it mandatory that their inventory be electronic, Internet compatible.

The bill stalled after the House Labor and Commerce Committee heard testimony from business people who spoke of the difficulty in identifying property without serial numbers, such as jewelry, and criticized the law for being too broad. Critics said the bill's language required cataloguing items the police aren't interested in, such as pieces of baby clothes.

"It's unfortunate that it stalled, because [the new law] would have been a good tool for police officers and it would have been good for the community," Dennis Ponder of the Alaska State Troopers Palmer Post said.

Pawn shop owners and coin dealers testified in the committee hearings. Some recommended the database and reporting requirements be limited to traceable items such as weapons and electronics. Pawn shop owners were frustrated with the original language of the bill which didn't include second-hand deals -- it does now -- and claimed most stolen property is traded among people who know it's stolen, or sold at perpetual yard sales that have no reporting.

John Minnick, owner of A-1 Pawn Shop in Wasilla tends to agree with those sentiments. Minnick didn't testify at the committee hearing, but he did listen in and spoke with some legislators face-to-face during the session. Minnick said it's rare for his shop to receive stolen goods.

"Anybody who knows the [current] law doesn't bring stolen goods to a pawn shop," Minnick said. "If you are doing your job at a pawn shop then you check to see a picture ID and they have to sign a ticket."

Minnick said he has helped police and troopers track down people who brought him stolen goods before. His records have shown who the person was and he has spent his own time to help out. He's also applied for restitution from the court system, he said. It's a paperwork chore, but it has paid off in the past.

"The court will take it from their dividend or their wages," Minnick said.

But he's not excited about the database bill -- at least not in its current form. Minnick said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Ralph Samuels, R-Anchorage, just needs to do more work with the business people who will be affected.

"I think his heart's in the right place and I think he's going to come up with a good bill eventually," Minnick said.