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Penticton council defers on pawn shop stolen goods database

Council directed staff to come back with harsher, escalating penalties for non-compliant businesses
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Penticton city council voted to defer its decision on a bylaw that would require pawn shops and second-hand stores to sign up to an RCMP database to find stolen items, asking staff to bring harsher penalties for non-compliant businesses. Dustin Godfrey/Western News

The City of Penticton has pushed back formalizing a deal between bylaw and RCMP that would crack down on selling stolen items at pawn shops.

The matter came before council Tuesday afternoon, where council heard that the proposal would include an electronic reporting and database program called RAPID (Regional Automated Property Information Database).

Under the program, pawn shops and second-hand stores would be required to purchase a program that would allow them to enter items they purchase into the database, which would be shared with police. Pawn shops would not have access to records from other shops, according to a council report.

Police would be able to search that database for potentially stolen items, and if something is deemed suspicious, it would be flagged for the shop so it could be held for police to investigate.

Police would have access to the databases from other communities hooked up to the RAPID program, which includes Kelowna, Kamloops and Surrey. The council report noted that since March 1, when the program was installed in Surrey, police have identified suspects in 17 investigations of theft and break-and-enters.

However, in a presentation to council, in response to a question from Coun. Andre Martin, community policing co-ordinator Mark Provencal said pawn shops would not be able to proactively search items they buy to see if they are stolen.

“This will support the quality of life and the social wellbeing of our community, to ensure fair business practices throughout all of the shops in the community,” bylaw supervisor Tina Siebert told council Tuesday.

The program was considered in the 1990s, but the cost was found to be prohibitive.

However, Coun. Campbell Watt said before council went ahead with the deal, he wanted to see the bylaw amended to improve enforcement against pawn shops or second-hand stores that do not comply with the bylaw by not entering items they buy into the system.

“I’d like to see perhaps even that we implement something in our bylaws that perhaps indicates that a fifth fine means you no longer have your business licence, and you have to reapply. Something along those lines, but let’s be firm with this,” he said.

Siebert noted that one day could mean multiple infractions, bringing multiple tickets, which “is going to hit them in the pocket books if they’re choosing to deliberately disregard the bylaw.”

Mayor Andrew Jakubeit asked how the bylaw department could ensure compliance with the bylaw, however, as there could be too many items in each store to perform regular audits.

“Our staff will obviously be working very close with CSET (RCMP’s Community Support and Enforcement Team) and making sure that there is that shared information so that we know which ones we’re having an issue with,” Siebert said. “And that will help the owners to be a bit more accountable.”

Cpl. Laurie Rock, who heads up CSET, said they can watch over the data entry from the pawn shops to find patterns. She gave the example of a pawn shop skipping data entry on a Tuesday.

“So we can look at this pattern of behaviour, this pattern of sales, and then maybe we go in there in plain clothes and do some kind of op with that,” Rock said. “It’s not going to be ideal. We’re not going to be able to make sure they do every single one, but again, it’s an awesome system, and when you see it, you can see when they’re reporting everything.”

Council gave the bylaw first and second reading, but sent staff back to review the bylaw for stronger and escalating penalties for non-compliant businesses.

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Dustin Godfrey | Reporter
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