The Arkansas Attorney General’s office and local law enforcement agencies are initiating a program to combat metal in the state. The AG office’s Special Investigations Division will train local law enforcement in online reporting tools and collaborate to inspect scrap yards.
Many metal thefts occur at farms around the state. Randy Veach, Director of the Arkansas Farm Bureau said reporting the thefts are important. Irrigation equipment and poultry houses are often stripped of metal, he said.
"We’re in isolated places…we’ll have fields out there. There’s no house within two or three miles of them. And we’ll have pivots out there or even poultry houses a lot of times…and so it’s an opportunity for [the thieves] to get in there and get something and get out of there quick,” he said after a press conference held with Atorney General Leslie Rutledge, AT&T executive Ronald Dedman and Veach.
“It’s really expensive for us to repair,” added Veach.
The AG’s office says Arkansas was recently ranked number five in the nation in insurance claims for stolen metal by the National Insurance Crime Bureau. 500 claims were filed between 2010 and 2012.
“There’ll be someone working an area, that’s doing most of the stealing of this wire metal. And so we need to report that right away when we notice something and get it reported to the police so they can get it to the proper authorities and we can start investigating it and stop that,” he said.
Arkansas has laws intended to reduce metal thefts, including one that requires recyclers of scrap metal to license their operations with local sheriffs. But the AG’s office says the law is not always enforced. Because of this, Investigations agents will train police at several locations around the state in the coming weeks. Next month, they will begin conducting inspections of scrap metal sites around the state.