A new state law takes effect Sunday that law enforcement agencies hope will curb metal theft.
House Bill 872, a revision of metal recycling laws, will eliminate the financial incentive to steal metals, such as copper from communication wiring and air conditioners and scrapped cars, police believe.
"The bill is going to have a statewide database that will require the various recyclers to report everything they take in," Atlanta Police Chief George Turner said. "It will really license all of the individuals working outside this industry."
That means every recycler must register with the sheriff's office in their respective counties, and every piece of metal that they purchase will be photographed and loaded into a database to be maintained by the GBI, Turner said.
Police throughout the metro area and the state have dealt with thieves causing thousands of dollars of damage tearing apart air conditioning units, automobile catalytic converters, and communications towers and cables to get copper, which is selling for as much as $3 per pound.
And earlier this year, a task force of area police and the Fulton County District Attorney's office indicted nearly 80 people for selling stolen cars to scrap metal recyclers.
Atlanta police Lt. Dan Rasmussen, head of the Fulton County burglary task force, said many cases of stolen copper often result in the metal being melted down before being sold.
"The AT&T wires these guys are taking and burning ... [recyclers] can't take them anymore," Rasmussen said. "You can't take copper to recycle unless you are a contractor."
In addition, cash payouts are prohibited for scrap purchases, and every recycler across the state, be it scrap metal buyers or car crushers, must pay to be registered with the state.
Some parameters that didn't make it into the law included provisions that people selling scrap metals be fingerprinted and a 24- to 72-hour waiting period before sellers could be paid for the metal, Atlanta police community liaison Alice Johnson said.
More than 60 statewide and national governments, organizations, utilities and companies lobbied for the law, including AT&T, Georgia Power, the cities of Atlanta and Savannah, Verizon and Sprint mobile phone companies, the Georgia Railroad Association and the Home Builders Association of Georgia.
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