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News Release
For Immediate Release
March 28, 2012
Contact:
Aaron Zappia
(215) 657-7700
Senate Passes Senator Greenleaf's Auto Theft Prevention Bill
On March 27th, the Pennsylvania Senate passed Senator
Greenleaf's SB 86, an auto theft prevention measure to assist law enforcement in
cracking down on auto theft in Pennsylvania.
"The crime of auto theft has become increasingly complex, and
auto thieves have become more organized," said Senator Greenleaf.
"Pennsylvania's existing laws need to be amended to help prosecutors charge
someone with auto theft."
Organized criminals are increasingly involved in stealing
vehicles, altering their identities and selling the vehicles to unsuspecting
consumers, or shipping the vehicle to other countries where they are sold on the
black market. They also steal vehicles to chop them up to sell the parts. The
profits from these thefts are often used to supplement other criminal
enterprises. Legislative revisions can improve law enforcement's efforts to
investigate more complex cases, as well as improve their ability to locate and
recover stolen vehicles and parts.
SB 86 expands the Motor Vehicle Chop Shop Act to include
“trailers” and “semitrailers” to help law enforcement charging thieves who steal
trailers.
Law enforcement has found that the current law is vague when
attempting to charge someone with the crimes of profiting from stolen vehicle
activity. SB 86 clarifies the offense of dealing in proceeds of unlawful
activity to specifically include stolen or illicitly obtained property.
Current law fails to establish any limits on time for
inspections of suspected “chop shops”. The proposal would establish that
inspections may occur during a shop's normal business hours or any other time in
which work is being done. Also, the current law does not properly limit which
vehicles may be searched. It allows police to search any vehicle on the
premises, including private vehicles belonging to employees or customers and
fails to provide constitutionally required limits on police discretion. The bill
corrects this issue by limiting searches to those vehicles and parts that are
subject to the record keeping requirements of the law.
Since 1994, when the General Assembly created the Auto Theft
Prevention Authority, annual auto theft rates have decreased by 60%. However, SB
86 is needed to help successfully prosecute and convict many highly organized
criminals and complicated cases. |
