A California bill aims to curb illicit copper wire sales amid a surge in thefts that have blacked out streetlights in Boyle Heights and other parts of Los Angeles.
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This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on April 25, 2025.
A state Assembly committee on Tuesday endorsed the bill, known as Assembly Bill 476, on a unanimous 18-0 vote. The bill was referred to the Assembly Public Safety Committee with a hearing scheduled for April 29.
This piece of legislation — introduced by Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez — seeks to crack down on copper wire theft by enhancing reporting requirements for junk dealers and recyclers, establishing a licensing requirement for copper sellers, modernizing restrictions on the possession of scrap metal from critical public infrastructure and revising penalties to better reflect the true cost to the public.
“These measures will increase transparency, discourage illicit sales and ensure accountability throughout the recycling and resale process,” according to an analysis of the bill.
Gonzalez, in the analysis, said the “consequences of these thefts are far-reaching.”
He noted a “dramatic increase” in streetlight outages in his district, which includes parts of downtown, as well as Boyle Heights, Westlake, Koreatown, Pico-Union and Chinatown.
The city’s Bureau of Street Lighting reported about 45,000 service requests in 2024, many of which were due to theft or vandalism, according to Gonzalez.
In 2024, Boyle Heights ranked second out of the city’s 114 neighborhoods for streetlight outage service requests,…
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