Editorial: Win-win for owners, police must be sought
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, March 22, 2005
We don’t believe local pawn shop owners are trying to thwart law enforcement efforts to track stolen goods through a statewide automated system, anymore than we believe the city is trying to put the owners out of business.
The council, in a tie vote at its last meeting, agreed not to adopt the ordinance, primarily because of the cost to shop owners &045; estimated at between $2,500 to $5,000 &045; to implement the system.
While we applaud their concern for local shop owners, voting against a tool that could help law enforcement should not have been an option.
Perhaps a sharing of expenses would have brought the pawn shop owners a little relief and the law enforcement the tool they need to track stolen items.
However, knowing how tight the city budget is for such expenses, a small business grant or loan would likely be the better option. Surely there is a pool of money to help businesses implement such a worthwhile expense without the liability of putting them out of business.
When the two groups get together, as was suggested by the council, to work out differences, cost-sharing or the possibility of a grant or small business loan could be discussed.
We believe there is a win-win solution out there and hope it can be found. In the end, it is the community which will benefit from such a solution.