WHEREAS It is recognized that property crime directly or indirectly affects more Ontario citizens than any other criminal offence. In 1996 there were some 527,119 such offences;

WHEREAS the number of pawn shops and second hand dealers in Ontario has increased dramatically in the last ten years; (There are currently approximately 1000 known businesses in Ontario)

WHEREAS it is recognized that an indeterminable number of criminals continue to use the services of pawn shops and second hand dealers to convert stolen goods to cash. (There were approximately 3,000,000 property for cash transactions in Ontario in 2001)

WHEREAS the current Pawnbrokers Act was written in 1906 and is considered significantly outdated and relatively unenforceable by police officers in the Province of Ontario

WHEREAS an Anti-Fencing conference was held in Ottawa in October 1998 at which 90 delegates from 35 police services in Ontario met to discuss the problem of fenced stolen property. It was agreed at this conference that effective legislation and automation of transaction records occurring in pawn and second hand dealers was necessary to deal with the problem of stolen property being passed through pawn shops and second hand dealers

WHEREAS the Property Crime Working Group was established following the conference in Ottawa to draft appropriate legislation dealing with amendments to the Pawnbrokers Act

WHEREAS at the OACP Board of Directors meeting in March 1999 a presentation was made by representatives of the Property Crime Working Group following which the Board of Directors forwarded a report to the Solicitor General and ALL Chiefs stating the position of the OACP was to pursue support for the development of provincial legislation governing pawn and second-hand dealers, as well as the implementation of an automated data collection system to be used for the transfer of information occurring in these businesses to police crime investigation units

WHEREAS in October, 1999, correspondence was sent to the Solicitor General expressing the position of the OACP Executive on the subject of necessary legislation changes governing pawn and second hand dealers Resolution 02-01 Pawnbrokers and Second Hand Goods Dealers Legislation

WHEREAS in March 2000 the Solicitor General responded to previous correspondence indicating that the concerns of the OACP Executive had been forwarded to the attention of the Ministry of the Attorney General as well as the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations for their review and consideration

WHEREAS draft Pawn and Second Hand Goods Dealers legislation has been prepared and circulated throughout the OACP for comment and has been accepted by the membership as well as the Legislation sub-committee

WHEREAS the draft legislation was presented to the Parliamentary Assistant to the Premier of the Province of Ontario in January 2002 by the Property Crime Working Group and the Chair of the OACP Crime Prevention Sub-committee for consideration within Provincial Cabinet

WHEREAS with the recent change in the Premiership of the Province of Ontario there has also been a change in the Provincial Ministries of Solicitor General, Attorney General, and Consumer and Commercial Relations

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police direct correspondence to the Premier and appropriate Provincial Ministers to strenuously encourage that some action be taken by the Provincial Government in relation to the long overdue and much needed replacement of the existing Pawnbrokers Act with the proposed Pawnbrokers and Second Hand Goods Dealers Act and associated technology.