Suggestions on How to Change The Law

1. Clarify the law regarding title. Although it was the SL DA's office who misinterpretted the law, better clarification is needed to ensure that title remains with the original owner in cases of theft.

2. Increase requirements for pawn shops to positively identify where a person actually lives. These new requirements could be as simple as requiring a mailing address where pawned money could be sent, or as complex and requiring a credit card where a quick check could be run to match up the address with the credit card.

3. Leverage the database to 'flag' known and/or suspected criminals from selling to pawn. If the police know someone is selling stolen items, make it so that he can't sell to any pawnshop anymore.

4. Leverage the database to match previously unidentifiable items. If we used the database to say "Criminal X sold a bike and trimmers to Pawn X and a lawn mower and string trimmer to Pawn Y, this must be the items described by the victim."

5. Return the holding period for pawn shops for 'sold' items to a more reasonable time of 15 business days. In the recent laws passed the holding period for 'sold' items was reduced from 30 days to 10 days, while 'pawned' items remained at 30 days. This change seems counterintuitive. It would seem those looking for easy cash are very unlikely to pawn an item versus selling it.

6. Open the database to the public and educate them on its existence. Just as I found my bike on eBay, allowing the public to monitor these databases will likely result in even more property recovery.

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