City officials gathered downtown on Tuesday to announce a victory in the city’s effort to curb an uptick in copper wire theft.
A task force formed to address the issue has yielded 82 arrests, over 2,000 pounds of stolen copper wire recovered, and nine firearms seized, according to L.A. City councilmembers Kevin de León and Traci Park
“Our message is very clear to the criminals that are stripping the city part by part,” De León said during the press conference on the project’s success. “The city of Los Angeles is no longer your ATM machine.”
The task force, dubbed the heavy metal task force, launched at the end of January as a partnership with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Bureau of Street Lighting (BSL). It was created to address the increasing number of copper wire thefts and scrap metal crimes affecting predominantly working-class neighborhoods like Council District 14’s Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, El Sereno and Downtown L.A.
The task force has led a total of 26 operations, ranging from undercover actions to high-visibility patrols, that have led to the arrests including 60 felony charges.
Since the issue affects many areas overseen by the councilmember, De León also announced Tuesday that he would be committing $200,000 of CD 14 district funds to help support the task force in its endeavors.
One particular area of note is the 6th Street Viaduct, a once brightly-lit structure that has been a repeat target of copper wire theft. CD 14 Communications Director Pete Brown said the City Bureau of Engineering is working to redesign some elements of the bridge to make it more secure and foolproof so thieves have a more difficult time stealing.
“We’ve got a multi-faceted approach,” said Brown. “We’re going after the organized criminals stripping our city for parts and selling it for scraps, and then we’re going to not only fix the lights, but also make sure they’re protected from theft in the future.”
In addition, two city motions authored by De León and Park have been introduced to continue the anti-theft effort.
The motions direct the Bureau of Street Lighting to find a way to brand its copper wire as city property, and to make it a criminal offense to possess telecommunications cable unless you are an individual or business affiliated with a telecom company.