Tulsa Police hope they’ll have new tools soon to fight illegal scrap metal sales.
The problem isn’t with well-known dealers, which are often connected to steel corporations.
"They really have no interest in the illegal purchase of that kind of material to shut down their billion-dollar business," said TPD Cpl. Jason Muse. "What we're talking about when we talk about the illegal guys are just the mom-and-pop stores that pop up in the metro area or the people who will buy metal illegally and then try to go resell it."
City councilors are working on an ordinance that would require scrap metal dealers to enter transactions into an online system TPD could access. TPD would also be able to issue citations to dealers not complying with the ordinance.
Muse said the agency has investigated several cases of illegal scrap metal dealing, but that's all they can do.
"The problem is, once our investigation was concluded, then we would send that information to the district attorney, and it would get sent into their system and prioritized and it may or may not come out," Muse said.
Under state law, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture regulates scrap metal transactions, but it doesn’t have the resources to do anything in metro areas.
The cost of copper wire theft in a recent month was $2 million from Tulsa highway lights alone.
