New State Legislation to Boost Efforts to Squash Scrap Metal Thefts

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Oklahoma legislators plan to strengthen the state’s existing bill on scrap metal theft prevention. Senator Chuck Hall has forwarded the bill as the first bill for the 2021 legislative session. The bill has been named ‘Sergeant Craig Johnson Oklahoma Scrap Metal Dealers Act’, in honour of the Tulsa police officer who had helped in formulating the language for the bill, but was killed in the line of duty.

According to Senate release, Hall has been working on the bill with members of the scrap metal industry, municipalities and law enforcement officials. The bill was introduced last year and was on its way to the governor’s desk for final approval. However, shortened session on account of pandemic-related shutdown prevented the bill from going through.

Hall stated that the new bill brings in more clarity, in addition to strengthening the Oklahoma Scrap Metal Dealers Act. It eliminates the duplicate language and enhances the statutory requirements to prevent metal thefts. Furthermore, it lists together all regulated items and groups all definitions. It introduces additional controls on seller identification requirements and adds remote storage batteries to the list of regulated items.

The proposed legislation will come up as the first bill in the legislative session, slated to begin Feb 1, 2021.

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