Ordinance targets secondhand businesses

Secondhand shops would have to join pawnbrokers in reporting transactions to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office under a proposed ordinance aimed at combating theft.

Technically, secondhand dealers already are required by state law and county ordinance to tell the Sheriff’s Office about goods they acquire from people who come to their shops. But there has been no enforcement.

“This will be a completely new experience for them,” Deputy Prosecutor Steve Kinn told county commissioners in a recent briefing.

Kinn worked with sheriff’s Detective Mark Stewart and Detective Sgt. Steven Barbieri to draft a new reporting ordinance that will go to county commissioners in the next week or two. Commissioners may conduct a public hearing and pass the ordinance after six weeks of public notice.

County officials hope the proposal will be used as a model by all the cities in the county. It mirrors a pawnshop ordinance county commissioners approved in January and pawnshop requirements in Spokane Valley.

Neither ordinance will have a large effect on its own because there is only one pawnshop and a handful of secondhand dealers in unincorporated portions of Spokane County. Most are in Spokane.

The proposed secondhand dealer ordinance applies to businesses that operate out of homes as well as shops. Still, Stewart said only seven people, representing four businesses, attended five public meetings he conducted around the county to discuss the pending legislation.

“We’ve got to think in regional terms,” Barbieri said.

Stewart said pawnshops in Spokane are reporting their transactions voluntarily on the sheriff’s Internet database, but the current city ordinance doesn’t require them to do so.

“Pretty much, Spokane Valley has gone along with the program with us,” Kinn said.

While Spokane and other cities have yet to follow suit, Kinn said, “Everybody is on board in terms of law enforcement because that is what’s needed.”

The proposed county ordinance for secondhand dealers would eliminate inappropriate language in the existing, 37-year-old county ordinance, such as a requirement to collect Social Security numbers. It would add teeth by requiring positive identification of sellers so detectives and prosecutors don’t have to rely on dealers’ notes and recollections.

Like pawnbrokers, secondhand dealers would be required to get a photograph or a fingerprint of everyone from whom they accept merchandise — whether pawned, consigned or sold. Daily electronic reports of every such transaction would have to be made to the sheriff’s Internet database.

The reporting requirements could be extended to scrap metal dealers after implementation in July of a law stripping their exemption from state reporting requirements for secondhand dealers.

Barbieri said county officials are proceeding “step by step” — and online marketing, such as eBay auctions, is “a nightmare” for future consideration. However, the proposed ordinance would require local online dealers to report merchandise brought to them in face-to-face transactions.

Law enforcement agencies throughout the region have access to the Spokane County database.

And Kootenai County is being encouraged to have its pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers start posting transactions on the site, Barbieri said.

Unlike boxes of paper reports, electronic reports can be searched immediately with just a few computer keystrokes. Unprocessed paper reports were overwhelming for detectives trying to locate stolen goods, Kinn said.

Electronic reporting also is cheap. The sheriff’s Internet database logs 20,000 to 22,000 transactions a month on average at a cost of $186 a year.

Stewart said the proposed ordinance may not have much effect on many secondhand dealers because they get much of their merchandise at garage and estate sales and wouldn’t be required to report those purchases.