CRC builds metal theft database
By Fangfang Li | Editorial
In response to the rising metal theft crimes in Marion County, the University of Indianapolis Community Research Center has been working on the Indianapolis Metal Theft Project with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department since January 2008.
The Indianapolis Metal Theft Project aims to have an in-depth analysis on the Indianapolis metal theft crimes, including the regions, costs, markets and impacts of the crime. IMPD provided all the metal theft crime data for CRC to analyze.
“This is the first metal theft project in Indianapolis,” said Kevin Whiteacre, assistant professor of criminal justice and sociology. “In 2007 and 2008, a lot of jurisdictions started noticing that metal theft was on the rise, but very few jurisdictions actually had hard numbers. So we decided to collect data on that.”
According to the project’s report, the “Metal Theft Database Pilot,” 678 metal thefts were reported in Indianapolis from Jan. 1 to March 31, 2008 and the value of stolen metal averaged just under $1 million per month.
The report also showed that thieves steal many kinds of metals, including catalytic converters from cars, copper wires and cable, parts of air conditioners and coppers, aluminum siding and gutters.
“Originally, it [the metal theft crime] is driven by the price of the copper,” Whiteacre said. “The price of to copper really started the skyrocket based on the increased speculative world market and world’s demand for metals, like China was buying a lot of coppers.”
Despite the state law, state regulation and city regulation on metal selling and marketing, Whiteacre said that the black market still exists.
“The law requires the scrap yards to get identifications from people who sell metals to them, but sometimes they [the thieves] can use fake I.D. so that they can get around [it],” Whiteacre said. “In fact, sometimes the scrap yards purchase materials not knowing they [the metals] were stolen. Sometimes employees of the scrap yards are aware of the fact but still buying them.”
Whiteacre mentioned that theft from the scrap yards is also a big problem. He said many employees of the scrap yards will steal metals on Sundays, and then sell those metals back on the following days, especially when the prices of the metals are very high.
Several UIndy graduate and undergraduate students are involved in this project as well. Whiteacre said this project is a good opportunity for students to have some hands-on experience and learn how a research project actually works.
Sophomore Raeann Howes, who works as research assistant for the metal theft database, said her experience of reading the crime reports and entering the data will benefit her career in the law enforcement area.
“It’s a really great project, and I’m glad I’m involved in it. It is very interesting to see how the statistics change as time goes by,” Howes said. “And this is definitely something I will be dealing with in my future career.”
Discussing the project’s next step,Whiteacre said that the researchers want to identify the environment consequences of metal theft. Students in the project are just beginning to do interviews with people.
Whiteacre also said that metal theft crime is not just a local issue; it has become a worldwide issue.
