Grant County sheriff discusses wire theft

GEORGE - Equipment stolen or destroyed for the copper in it was the focus of a meeting with Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones.

The sheriff held the first of a planned series of town hall meetings in George and told the crowd of about 80 people, he wanted to put a face with a name and to partner with the community.

"Also, it gives us a chance to inform you of things that are going on in the county," he said. "What we're up to. Some of the changes that we're making. Some of the cases that we're working."

Jones wants input from the county's residents, he said, adding the office can't operate without help.

"When I get into talking about the wire thefts and the metal thefts, it's something we absolutely need the community's help on," he said. "There's been some great cases in the last couple of weeks based on eyes and ears out in the community."

Jones spoke about Operation Brightwire, a task force developed by the sheriff's office to combat metal and wire thefts in the county. He said the rise in the price of copper has caused a 500 percent increase in the amount of thefts compared to the same time span last year.

"It has absolutely gone rampant," he said. "Obviously with these bad guys, it's a supply-and-demand thing. Last year, copper was $3.50 a pound. This year, it's $4.55 a pound. So they are ripping off everything they possibly can that has copper in it, to fund their whatever-it-is-that-they're-doing."

He said the criminals are taking risks they normally wouldn't because of the price.

Stopping the thefts is one of Jones' top priorities, he said, adding he asked Chief Deputy Ryan Rectenwald to develop the task force. The four-week-long operation started Feb. 15. The first objective was to educate the people running the five recycling centers in Grant County about the laws surrounding accepting metal from people.

"So chief Rectenwald, along with a couple of other folks, makes up this nice, relatively minor, three-ring binder with all of the state laws in it and the expectations and the lists and what they're required to get from everybody who (sells) wire," he said.

The sheriff's office also created a "no-buy" list, which it distributed to the county's scrap yards. The list contains the names of people convicted of crimes, such as theft, burglary, robbery or a drug-related conviction, Jones said. The yards' employees are required to check the names of people selling metal against the list.

"The state law says, 'You're not allowed to sell metal for a period of 10 years upon the date of that conviction,'" Jones said. "After 10 years (and) no further convictions, you can sell metal again to a scrap yard."

Jones said the goal is to remove a place for the thieves to sell the metal.

Officers also contacted farm bureaus, irrigation companies and other people in the area, to develop a partnership with the office. Jones called the groups their eyes and ears in the area.

"They're the ones that are always in these fields. They know, and you folks know, you know what's in place and what's out of place," he said. "Those are the kinds of eyes that we need."

The next portion of the operation was to make sure the scrap yards were complying with the law, Jones said, adding some are legitimate and some are "not so legitimate."

"We're making sure we're holding those not so legitimate ones accountable for what they're doing and, hopefully, they'll either straighten it up or run their business somewhere else," he said.

Jones also pointed out the state law allows police to check records at scrap yards to see who has been selling metal, allowing them to start developing cases.

He also advised other methods of deterring thieves, such as painting equipment or marking them with some sort of identifier.

"A can of spray paint goes a long way in the farming community," Jones said. "No one is going to want to take a bright pink aluminum pipe ... The thieves, they're not going to go through the work of stealing it and then going through all of that time and labor to rub off the pink spray paint."

Police executed six search warrants, made 10 arrests, seized 86 items and found one complete methamphetamine lab during the three weeks of the operation, he said, adding they had nine arrests during the last two weeks from farmers calling.

The residents asked several questions about why the people accused of the crimes were being released on bail so quickly.

Jones replied it is a great question, and it is frustrating for law enforcement, saying sometimes they are released before the deputies finish their reports.

"This is something I cannot blame on the prosecutor's office," he said. "The prosecutor's office, what they will do is they review the charges and then they recommend bail ... At that point, it's the judges decision on whether or not to take the prosecutor's recommendation."

When asked if the judges were the problem, Jones said he wouldn't say the judges were the problem, but they do have the final decision.

When a resident asked what they can do to influence bail decision, Chief Deputy Ken Jones suggested coming to court around 1:30 p.m. on Mondays to listen during sentencing.

"Just line the courtrooms, let them see your faces because there is going to be decision making that happens and judges are human they're going to look out in the crowd, they're going to see the citizens that have been robbed, the citizens that who are victims over and over again and see that reaction," he said.

Undersheriff Dave Ponozzo pointed out the judges also have rules set by the Legislature, saying judges look at the type of crime.

"Are they committing violent crimes while they're in jail? Do they have ties to the community? These guys have ties to the community. They can't afford to be anywhere else," he said. "We can get upset and discouraged with their manner of justice ... but our legislature has really tied our hands and I will tell you, based on what the legislature is currently doing, I don't see it getting any better."

People questioned how people could commit several crimes during the years, but don't seem to stay in jail or prison.

"What happens is that as they come in, they get charged, they get convicted, they go on probation, they pay their fine, they get what they call points," Tom Jones said. "Obviously, if they come in with zero points or one point, there is a standard range that they're required to give (the criminals.)"

The sheriff continued, saying it's rare the judges go outside of the range. He said for charges such as theft in the third degree, people won't incur points towards their sentence.

"So they could be stealing and stealing and stealing and stealing and still not accrue enough points to put them away in prison," he said.

Rectenwald said the sheriff's office deputies can't get frustrated with people getting let out of jail or prison quickly.

"We just do our job as hard as we can and make sure if they're breaking the law or doing whatever they're doing. They get held accountable," he said. "By doing that, we can't get frustrated as citizens and we can't get frustrated as law enforcement. We have to work together as a team and eventually they're either going to learn their lesson or they're going to spend some time in prison."

Jim Hammack, one of the attendees, pointed out the people stealing metal from his property use the roads running along the irrigation ditches to travel.

"Off the irrigation right-of-way road, they actually built a bridge to steal my metal," he said. "It was in the middle of the winter, and I don't go back there. I went back and a circle was stripped and two corn dryers were stripped. The compressors were gone and they were having a regular old fire sale back there."

Tom Jones said the officers allegedly found people recently arrested using ATVs with a single light on the front, pulling a trailer.

"So when they're cruising around at night with their light and they see out in the distance headlights or whatever, they just stop, shut off their headlight and wait," he said. "We want to make sure we're working smarter than them."

When someone asked if they saw the same people traveling to the recycling centers, why couldn't they arrest them, Tom Jones explained the officers need probable cause to believe the items were stolen.

"When I was out there enforcing one day outside of one of our local recycling centers, ... (I would ask,) 'Where did you get this?' (The person answered,) 'Oh, farmer Joe Smith.' (I asked,) 'What is his phone number,' and then we would follow up with a phone call to farmer Joe Smith saying, 'Hey, this guy's got 18 half wheel lines in the back of his truck, did you give him permission?'"