President's Message
If I was to name this segment of the President’s Message, it would be titled, “The Good, The Bad, and the Selectively Blind”.
In the last few months, I have witnessed some in the pawn industry do their best to widen the cracks in the fragile relationship between them and law enforcement. This is not only happening at the State level but at the Federal level also. This has been tried numerous times in the past and luckily our legislators, with our help, see through the pawn industry’s self serving crap.
History Lesson: It is 1995-1996, the Macarena and C’mon N’ Ride It are in the top ten of the music charts, Clinton is in the White House making designs on an intern’s dresses, I wear a size 32 waist pant, and it is the Chinese New Year of the Rat. How appropriate.
Little known to law enforcement at the time, the Florida Pawn industry was writing a bill in the State Statutes that would separate them from second hand dealers. If the bill passed it would allow the pawnshops to charge the highest interest and service charges in the country and take away “Home Rule”. The bill also dictated what must be on a transaction form and available to law enforcement. This includes complete information on the property sold or pawned. Also dictated by the Statute is the requirement that personal information of the customer is recorded on the transaction form and available to law enforcement. This is the one benefit to law enforcement and victims of crime. The bill passes and becomes law, the pawn industry is pleased.
The State Statute was not the only thing changing the face of the pawn industry in 1996. Development of computerized pawn systems have become a priority to law enforcement. With the system’s development comes a huge increase in the recovery of stolen property and pawnshop related cases. Late in 1996 some agencies started using the pawn systems in violating subjects on house arrest. The systems are a huge success and are a milestone in property crime investigation. The system’s efficiency makes more evident the clientele that use the pawnshop on a regular basis.
In 1997, the Sun Sentinel newspaper in Broward County, Florida conducted a study of over 70,000 pawn transactions. The article did a great job of describing the pawn industry, analyzing the transaction forms, and highlighted the work of a young Detective (that soon after started receiving marriage proposals from Russian mail-order brides). The Sun Sentinel found that of the most prolific pawners, 78% had arrest records. (By the way, I turned down every offer)
A similar study was done in Portland, Oregon in 1997. That study found that 90% of frequent pawners were also frequent drug users with extensive criminal histories.
The pawn industry, being community oriented, acted immediately. News that the very nature of their business was being used as a tool for the criminal element surprised the pawn industry. The pawn industry knew that in actuality, they conducted a service for the victims of crime. If there were no pawnshops most of the stolen property recovered in pawnshops would be lost forever.
The pawn industry devised an ingenious plan that would help the victims of crime and at the same time, eliminate some of the caked-on tarnish from their industry.
First step, they thought, would be to do what they could to help law enforcement. When a customer came in with property that was suspicious, law enforcement would be notified. What is the difference between suspecting a theft has occurred when you see a man running down the street with a ladies purse, or when someone brings 50 copies a new DVD movie that had been released that same day and offers to sell them for $2.00 a piece? Or when someone that offers to sell a laptop that they know nothing about?
Second step, when stolen property was recovered at a pawnshop the store would give it back to the victim of the crime free of charge. They would not make the victim take them to court or buy their own property back. After all, the victim had been through enough already. The pawn industry believes (and they state it frequently) only 1/10th of 1% of property in pawnshops is stolen. Because of this small percentage, the cost would be minimal and the boost to their image would be immeasurable.
The pawn industry had decided to join together to make their cities a better place to live. They were now partners in correcting the wrongs and doing what was right. Instead of being perceived as an undesirable business you don’t want in the neighborhood, they will be viewed as a caring partner in the community.
This was about the same time I wore my hair in a ponytail and Michael Jackson was on the cover of Men’s Health magazine, featured for his power lifting workout routine and reputation as a womanizer.
Truth is, upon learning of the report some in the pawn industry decided the problem was they did not hide the nature of their business well enough.
Soon after the expose in the Sun Sentinel, the Florida pawn industry affected changes to the State Statute so the transaction forms were no longer public record. They felt this would prevent any nosey newspapers from conducting studies of the type of clientele that frequent their businesses.
In addition, they decided to limit the personal information that is accessible to law enforcement without a subpoena.
If you go to http://www.nationalpawnbrokers
.org/overview.htm you will see the National Pawnbrokers website. Under the heading of “Most Asked Questions” you will see the first question from many of their customers is if they will enjoy the same protections under federal law that is enjoyed in other types of financial institutions.
In their answer they state that they are the only type of consumer credit that requires reporting to local law enforcement and imply how unfair this is.
I cannot tell you how sick this type of propaganda makes me. Some in the industry insist that they are just another type of bank. They enjoy stating that the pawn industry is the first form of banking. You know what, I will agree with them. They are a form of banking so let’s make them adhere to all the federal and state laws that govern the banking industry. Not just the select ones that benefit their self serving purposes.
The simplistic answer to that “most asked question” leaves out some other differences between pawnshops and the other banking and credit industries.
- All their “loans” are risk free. When the pawn industry loans money on property it is for as little as .10 on the dollar. So any time a loan defaults, the property can usually be sold for a large profit
- The loan “collateral” is kept in the possession of the business and the customer cannot use or access it until the loan is fulfilled
- When property is accepted there is no proof of ownership required
- No other financial institution is allowed to charge astronomical charges for short term loans
- No other form of financial institution is, by its very nature, subject to possess stolen property and assist in its movement
I have to ask, how can the pawnshop industry feel they are “trying to enhance the image of pawnshops” while at the same time doing their best to stick it up our backsides?
As an excellent and timely example of this, it was recently brought to my attention that one of my favorite Pawnbrokers on the west coast of Florida has sent a letter to his local law enforcement agencies stating the need for a subpoena when requesting copies of his video surveillance recordings. The reason for this action he states is “due to the strict requirements that pawnbrokers must follow to comply with state and federal privacy laws.”
There is nothing in State Statute 539 that requires this so I am assuming he is again lumping himself with banks…….. (See all the crap I wrote above). By the way, very few banks or any other financial institution require subpoenas for surveillance footage of a crime being committed. This is just another tactic to hinder criminal investigations and prevent the arrest of the perpetrators.
In reality, the video surveillance recordings are his and his business’s personal property. If he does not wish to give up this information he does not have to. So in an effort of good will, to further abide by his wishes, I would suggest we complete a simple subpoena requiring him, by name, to deliver the needed evidence within three days to the law enforcement agency. Having him deliver it himself would go one step further to ensure the information is kept private. The information would have little chance of getting leaked if the transfer of the video goes from his hand directly into the custody of the agency.
There would be no employees or anyone else involved, just from his hand directly to the agency requesting it. We would then see if he is willing to give up his time for his noble and just cause.
The first line of his letter states that his pawnshops “support law enforcement in their ongoing investigations.” He has proven this many times in the past by attempting to decrease our hold period from 30 to10 days, consistently being one of our main adversaries in Tallahassee, causing a near-riot when he was invited to speak at one or our conferences, and just being so anti-law enforcement his fellow pawnshop owners call US to complain and inform us of what new tricks he is planning.
If you noticed that I repeatedly state “some of the pawn industry”. I used the word “some” because I truly feel that the majority of the pawn industry is community minded. They don’t turn a blind eye to crime or suspicious activity. They do a service for the entire community, not just their customers. In my jurisdiction I have pawnshops that continually contact me concerning suspicious transactions and clients that they have concerns about. These shops are partners in my fight against crime and the animals that commit them.
The pawn industry has developed a reputation that has many towns and cities enacting zoning laws that all but prohibit new shops from opening or relocating. I will tell you this, if I was legally able, I would happily go to bat for some of those shops. A legitimate, community minded shop, does the area a service and should not be restricted by excessive zoning regulations.
Let us not forget, when law enforcement overreacts or uses the tools given to us in an irresponsible way, we give fuel to the minority of shops that want to curtail the information given to us.
I will close this with one more statement that has nothing to do with what I written thus far. There is more than one pawn system out there. If your jurisdiction is shopping for a pawn system, look at all of them. Don’t listen to the fast pitch of a salesman. There are companies that do more for half the price than one of the more popular companies out there. I recently heard of a company that continued to court City Commissioners for their business even after the police department had turned them down and went with another company. To be fair, I am not naming names of any companies. Just do your homework and check them all out. If everyone out there did a little digging, one of the more popular companies would probably be out of business.
Until next time, be careful out there.
Jack Gee
President of the Florida Law Enforcement Property Recovery Unit954.828.5897