A recent incident in our community brought to my attention the lax rules and enforcement measures that govern the sale of scrap metal in the KCK area. Just this past year, the Kansas legislature passed a law in an attempt to regulate private companies that buy scrap metal from individuals. As initially proposed, the law did have some teeth to it, but due to the scrap metal industry's involvement, the law was watered down so as to become almost worthless.

Late last year, 120 speakers and a truck were stolen from the Boulevard Drive-In here in Rosedale. Within a few days, the KCK Police Department (KCKPD) discovered the speakers had been sold as scrap to National Compressed Steel (NCS) in Armourdale. The law passed last year requires the scrap dealer to take a copy of the driver's license of anyone wishing to sell scrap metal worth over $50. In this instance, NCS did take a copy but it was not the license of the person selling the speakers so they did not follow the law and their own procedures.

In January, I accompanied the owner of the Drive- In, Wes Neal, and a KCKPD Detective to retrieve the stolen speakers from NCS. Not only had NCS not followed policy to obtain the correct ID of the seller, they had also shipped the speakers out by mistake! This is after they were made aware the speakers were stolen and the owner wanted them back. Everyone made money on this deal except Mr. Neal. When I asked NCS if they were going to reimburse Mr. Neal, I was told that they should not be talking to me. At this time, Mr. Neal has not been compensated for his loss.

The commercial fencing of stolen scrap metal comes at a huge cost to our community. It impacts homeowners and businesses in the form of stolen property. Utilities are affected, as well, forcing them to raise rates to cover expenses incurred from theft. Our police department must spend countless hours investigating the many reports of stolen metal, costing taxpayers and diverting police resources away from other crime prevention efforts.

Many other states have enacted much more restrictive laws in an attempt to quell some of the scrap metal thefts. The current Kansas law is available on the legislature's website: www.kslegislature.org. Look for Bill No. 2035. Also, check out the Conference Committee Report Brief for background information and for detail on what provisions were removed from the adopted law.

RDA will be working with others to address this problem, but you can help, too. I encourage you to contact your state senator and representative and ask them to close the loopholes in the law that was passed last year and to toughen regulation of the scrap metal industry. If you don't know who your senator or representative is, visit the legislature's website: www.kslegislature.org.

- Wendy Wilson