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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Car dismantlers and scrap processors – additionally knowns as chop outlets – should now comply with new rules on the acquisition, sale, and possession of catalytic converters.
New York State can be cracking down on unauthorized and unlawful chop outlets and growing interagency automobile and catalytic converter theft enforcements in high-theft areas.
Catalytic converters – a part of a automobile’s exhaust system that breaks down pollution – have change into a goal for thieves within the final 12 months and a huge headache for automobile house owners.
On Staten Island, police responded to 362 studies of catalytic converter thefts between January and mid-August, in comparison with simply 47 the 12 months earlier than, representing a surprising 670% improve, in line with NYPD.
In New York Metropolis, the NYPD initially reported that thefts of catalytic converters virtually quadrupled in 2022; there have been 5,548 converter thefts citywide as of Aug. 14 in comparison with 1,505 throughout the identical time interval in 2021.
It will probably value a automobile proprietor between $2,000 and $3,000 to exchange a stolen converter and repair the harm triggered to the automobile when it was stolen.
On Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed laws (S.9428/A,1940-E), amending the Car and Site visitors Legislation so as to add catalytic converters as a serious part automobile half and require automobile dismantlers to take care of data of catalytic converters.
Car dismantlers and scrap processors at the moment are required to report the variety of converters it obtained each 60 days. Failure to report and produce data when requested is a Class A misdemeanor and a hefty financial penalty.
Moreover, new motorized vehicle sellers and different certified sellers can be required to inventory catalytic converter etching kits to place a singular serial quantity on the elements in order that they are often tracked if they’re stolen. The kits can be offered at not more than the price of the package itself, the state mentioned.
“Public security is my high precedence, and we’re taking an aggressive, focused method to discourage criminals from stealing catalytic converters. Catalytic converter thefts have skyrocketed throughout our state and nation, and these complete actions double down on our efforts to maintain New Yorkers and their property secure, defending our communities and cracking down on crime,” Hochul mentioned.
On Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed laws sponsored by Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore) (S.9428/A,1940-E), amending the Car and Site visitors Legislation so as to add catalytic converters as a serious part automobile half and require automobile dismantlers to take care of data of catalytic converters. (Photograph courtesy of Savino)
Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore), who sponsored the invoice within the Senate, thanked Hochul, Meeting invoice sponsor Assemblywoman Buttenschon, and Senators Addabbo and Kennedy for his or her help with the important laws.
“Happily, most individuals don’t have to know what a catalytic converter is – until you attempt driving a automotive and also you would not have one,” Savino mentioned.
“What we’re doing right here is cracking down on catalytic converter thefts, requiring catalytic converters to be added to the checklist of part elements that need to be reported, and likewise imposing new controls on scrap steel sellers, scrap processors, and others, and itinerant sellers, in order that we are able to get at this downside,” Savino continued.
Hochul mentioned $20 million is obtainable to assist native police departments and sheriffs’ workplaces put money into new applied sciences to unravel, scale back and stop crime.
In mid-December, the New York State Division of Prison Justice Companies (DCJS) will search purposes for expertise requests, together with license plate readers, cellular and stuck surveillance cameras, unmanned aerial automobiles, gunshot detection units, good tools for patrol automobiles and officers, and different youngsters of public security tools. DCJS has issued a request for data from police departments and sheriffs’ workplaces throughout the state on the kinds of expertise they want. The company will settle for purposes by means of Nov. 18, 2022.
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