Undoing an Idiots work! (Kansas City, St. Louis: crime, school, law)

[Versatile]

Lawmaker wants to stop rogue tow truckers from stealing cars - KCTV5

Lawmaker wants to stop rogue tow truckers from stealing cars


A Missouri lawmaker is working to change the law to put a stop to rogue tow truck drivers cashing in on people's cars.


A stupid legislator from a small town created this fiasco last year. Here we are having to repeal it.Car thefts went up 37% in St LOUIS and 20% in Kansas City! Cannot remember the guys name that Wrote the first bill. anyway when he was quizzed about the rise in car thefts he stated that' ,Maybe the police should work a little harder. What an idiot

Missouri State Representative Jeremy LaFaver, who is in his first term, wants people to know he's listening to them. He filed legislation to make it harder for criminals to steal people's cars and says it's a direct result of their letters, emails and phone calls.

"It was a number of constituents that sent emails and then your (KCTV's) story," LaFaver said.

Both were questioning a state law passed in 2012 that allows people to scrap vehicles 10 years or older without a title. The problem is that rogue tow truck drivers started taking cars and cashing them in at scrap metal yards.

LaFaver wants to repeal that law.

"Just change it back to the way it was before, to where you have to have a certificate of title if it's under 20 years old," he said.

When the law went into effect, Kansas City Police say thefts of older vehicles jumped nearly 20 percent and in St. Louis thefts jumped 36 percent.

"The reason that they passed this law is in rural areas, people are dumping vehicles on farmers' lands and all over the place, and people are unable to get rid of these cars. So it made sense to me why they passed the law. I just don't think that they saw this unintended consequence and who would have seen rogue tow truck drivers running around stealing cars," LaFaver said.

Ideally, the Democrat wants to see a Kansas City ordinance become state law. That ordinance places a 72-hour hold on scrap yards.

"You've got to have certainly longer than 14 minutes to be able to report your vehicle stolen - giving people enough time to report and possibly find their stolen car before it's gone forever," LaFaver said. "It was one of those things you look at and say, ‘I'm in a position to potentially make a difference here and I need to try.'"

LaFaver is working closely with State Sen. Jason Holsman who represents the Kansas City area. Holsman will introduce similar legislation in the Senate

[Flyover_Country]

There is a very quick way to stop this behavior. Simply have the scrap yards record the VIN and a copy of the seller's driver's license for every untitled vehicle scrapped and then submit it to the DOR in Jefferson City. (Scrapyards already commonly have photo copies of sellers on file in case a seller ends up being suspected of scrapping stolen goods. I know I have to give a copy of my driver's license to even sell aluminum cans and have for several years in two different states.) Any "rogue tow truck driver" or anybody else for that matter who stole a vehicle would be in trouble as the owner reporting their vehicle as stolen would end up having the VIN traced back as having been destroyed and with the name of the person who sold it. Sure, they could give a fake ID, but somebody could give a fake title too. They could only do that a few times at any one scrapyard before the scrapyard operator would get suspicious and turn the person. Scrapyards currently can get into trouble for receiving stolen property if they scrap stolen property, even if they don't know it was stolen. That little change should essentially stop the problem. This would also stop some issues with stolen vehicles as well, such as using the VIN of a similar make/model/year scrapped vehicle to register a stolen vehicle and have it come back as legit.

[Versatile]

The laws needs repealed.

[northbound74]

Sounds like a law trying to keep rural Missouri from being filled with rusty Fords and school buses in people's yards like some places I know. Not a terrible law from intelligent small-town people, really. Might need some tweaking or replacing with something that serves a similar purpose from a different angle.
Anyway, crime in KC and St. Louis is a much bigger issue than this one obscure law.

[Versatile]

Originally Posted by northbound74

Sounds like a law trying to keep rural Missouri from being filled with rusty Fords and school buses in people's yards like some places I know. Not a terrible law from intelligent small-town people, really. Might need some tweaking or replacing with something that serves a similar purpose from a different angle.
Anyway, crime in KC and St. Louis is a much bigger issue than this one obscure law.

The law is not obscure. You must not have a family member/ yourself driving a 10 year old car.