KHOU-11’s Lee McGuire reports that the City of Houston is lagging in its implementation of the scrap-metal ordinance that Mayor White and his Council passed in March:
Every scrap dealer in Houston was supposed to have a system in place to identify the sellers by now and send all of the information to the police department.
But a lot of scrap dealers don’t have access to the Internet, and the city hasn’t written the computer program needed to make it all work.
It’s been nearly a month since the ordinance took effect, and problems with the sweeping scrap metal changes are now coming to light.
“But I also learned that some of the things we wanted for investigative purposes maybe weren’t entirely practical,” said Houston City Councilman Adrian Garcia.
Later this month, Houston will pick a private company to set up the computer programs needed to put all the city’s scrap metal dealers online, remove requirements that dealers tag every bit of metal that comes through their doors, and drop the requirement that dealers hold scrap metal for a week down to three days.
Back when the ordinance passed, temporarily-not Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado released the following statement:
“This morning, my colleagues and I unanimously passed the Scrap Metal Ordinance, strengthening HPD’s ability to properly respond to the malicious wave of copper theft that has affected our city,” said Council Member Carol Alvarado.
“Areas in my district such as the 3rd and 4th Ward were targeted as vulnerable neighborhoods by these very organized criminals. Non-profits, churches, homebuilders, and most importantly residents were falling victim to this very cost-consuming crime. We have finally closed the loop on a most unfortunate sting of crimes that had a drastic economic impact.
Or perhaps not.
It will be useful down the road to compare the rate of scrap metal thefts before and after the ordinance officially took effect (in September). Of course, if the numbers look bad, Mayor White may just tell us it’s because many more copper thieves live in Houston than before the ordinance, and the numbers would be worse without it!
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