Do police regularly audit pawn shops sales under a KYC type law?
This also applies to scrap yards. They must submit to authorities a daily report of all scrap received and by who.
I don't know how this has passed legal muster. In the article they state: "Detectives also conducted undercover operations in which they sold new items in their original packaging to the shops, which accepted them no questions asked"
So now Pawn Shops are required to interrogate their customers?
Sorry for the off topic reply.
I am a Machinist so most of my waste is worth money. CHIPS! Brass, Copper, and Bronze if kept virgin can command good scrap rates. I can tell you how that has gone at work. Back in the old days, we all contributed and segregated bronze into a 55 gallon drum. When full, company vehicle takes scrap to scrapyard. So 50 percent lost off the top, but the rest was used to buy shop tools. We had nice accessories. Then management got greedy and wanted it all. Now we don't segregate or care about virgin material. Everybody loses. Crappy tools so people get hurt and less money for the scrap sold.
Also, the Patriot Act is a major invasion of privacy. SCOTUS says it’s Constitutional but I think there would be riots in the streets if people really understood the kind of surveillance the average law-abiding citizen is subject to under the law.
Gun sales are always audited -- by both the local law enforcement, and the ATF/TTB/DHS. Electronics are generally only audited by the local law enforcement, and if there's something specific that they're looking for, they'll look daily/send officers to the pawn shop.
I've had a break-in to my pawn shop before, and someone stole handguns and a rifle...before the ink was dry on the police report, there was someone that the law enforcement called "the gun whisperer" -- a guy from the ATF who specializes in stolen weapons from dealers -- and they had found the guy and recovered the stolen weapons in less than 72 hours.
We are required to keep descriptors (Sex, Age, Hair, Height, Eyes, body type) in our customer database: we take it a step further by taking a copy of their Driver's License/ID and a copy of their thumbprint.
Source: I own a pawnshop as one of my side businesses.
I can speculate on a few things:
* Pawn shop owners let police peruse their transaction lists whenever asks. Perhaps similar to how cops may look past low level crimes in order to make bigger cases.
* Perhaps akin to police being able to affect traffic stops in areas with high crime, and/or high incidents of DUI's, the police are allowed to look at records as Pawnshops were a known vector for stolen property.
* The police were investigating theft, where a stolen item showed up in a pawn-shop, and were lawfully reviewing the transaction records.