Relief may be in sight for rise in burglaries

The pet project of one Wasilla Police Department officer just got a giant nudge, and the end result could bring very good news to area homeowners and their families.

Since 2002, WPD Investigator Doug Sonerholm has been pushing an update of an old law that covers transactions at pawn and second-hand shops. The point is to get a uniform process in place for recording store inventories and how individual items were obtained.

Taken by itself, this may appear to be mindless red tape designed to burden shop owners for no good reason. But given the alarming rise in property crimes like burglary, likely associated with the Valley's meth epidemic, there is a huge upside to the proposal.

Recognizing this, borough assembly member Jim Colver, who recently announced his candidacy for borough mayor, has jumped on board with Sonerholm and says he will introduce a new borough ordinance intended to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to track stolen goods through pawn and second-hand shops.

This is good for two reasons: Victims of theft are more likely to recover goods stolen from them; and burglaries may become less prevalent if they are less easily rewarded. What burglar, after all, would want his or her name attached to stolen goods?

The law change is an excellent first step in keeping residents safe from burglaries, but it won't be successful without genuine boroughwide support that includes statutory backup from the incorporated cities in the borough. Since borough ordinances don't govern city businesses, it will take separate code changes on the part of Wasilla, Palmer and Houston to put all borough pawn shops and law enforcement agencies on the same page.

Wasilla city councilors Marty Metiva and Mark Ewing joined Houston city councilors Rosemary Burnett and Ruth Blanchard in signaling early support for the Colver plan. They deserve the thanks of their constituents for doing so.

Whether they are able to convince their respective councils of the wisdom of joining the cause remains to be seen. Likewise, Colver needs to get a majority of the assembly on board.

Despite this cause being a clear no-brainer, it is being proposed by a candidate for political office during an election year. This always leaves open the possibility that elected officials will play politics with it instead of doing the right thing for those they are supposed to be representing.

This is a great opportunity for city and borough governments to work together for the benefit of all residents. Failing such willingness, the responsibility falls to individual voters to contact their city council members, mayors and borough assembly representatives and urge them to support this initiative.

A similar law is already on the books in Anchorage, making this a worthwhile use of the newly formed Tri-Borough Commission. If local governments here and on the Kenai Peninsula can enact a law like the one in Anchorage, the necessary step up to a statewide law and pawn-shop database will be that much easier.

Getting something on the books locally may not be the final solution, but it does make a final solution possible. Kudos to Investigator Sonerholm for his perseverance in getting the ball rolling with this proposal. Now it's up to others to pick up the ball and run with it.