Copper Wire Thefts In LA Have Skyrocketed, Affecting Rail Crossings And Internet Access. Now The City's Creating A Taskforce

The Los Angeles City Council approved a pair of motions Wednesday to create a new LAPD Copper Wire Task Force and a reward program designed to encourage people to report the thefts and other streetlight crimes in the city.

The task force will be a joint operation between the LAPD’s Central Bureau and the Bureau of Street Lighting and focus on addressing the spike in copper wire crimes in downtown L.A., Boyle Heights, El Sereno, and Lincoln Heights.

Why it matters

The thefts have become a more pressing problem, with streetlight repair reports increasing tenfold over the last five years, which officials have said creates public safety concerns.

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“We have witnessed this issue escalate at a very alarming rate,” said Councilmember Kevin de León, who introduced the motion. “Just five years ago, we were dealing with 500 to 600 cases of copper wire theft each year. In the past fiscal year, that number skyrocket to a staggering 6,842 cases, with repair costs exceeding well over $20 million.”

De León added that Verizon reached out to his office Wednesday morning to report some of their fiber optic cables had been ripped out of the ground, which could affect internet access. Copper wire thieves also knocked out an entire fire alarm system for a city warehouse near the L.A. River in Boyle Heights last weekend, he added.

Other high-profile thefts

Councilmember Tim McOsker pointed to the “horrific” thefts of plaques from the Merchant Marines Memorial, a memorial to fishing industry families, and a memorial to a Japanese village on Terminal Island in his 15th district.

At least some of those items have been recovered. McOsker said police arrested a few suspected thieves Tuesday afternoon after plaques were found in their possession during a routine traffic stop, including a memorial marker from a Roman Catholic priest’s grave site in Long Beach.

Council President Paul Krekorian, who also serves on the boards for Metro and Metrolink, said train signals have also been shut down because of metal theft.

“Putting at risk a train full of people, all for the benefit of 20 or 30 bucks worth of copper,” he said. “This is absolutely intolerable in any society, we cannot let this continue.”

Why two councilmembers voted against it

The vote in favor of forming the task force was 13 to 2, with Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez voting against.

While Hernandez agreed that copper wire theft is an issue throughout L.A. and that there should be accountability, she criticized the reward program for focusing on punitive measures rather than preventive.

“We just cannot continue to keep up, it's like playing Whac-A-Mole,” she said. “If I gotta choose where I’m going to put my money, I really want us to try and look into stopping the harm from happening in the first place. We don’t do that enough, and we’re going to keep spinning our wheels and I bet we’ll be back in a few years because we’ll never have caught up.”

Soto-Martinez echoed Hernandez’s concerns, adding that people are pretending these issues aren’t tied to poverty. He said he doesn’t feel like the council has been having an honest conversation about copper wire crimes.

“I supported this in public safety [committee], but seeing where this conversation is going, I’m going to be voting no on this,” he added.

What's next

City officials and the LAPD have been instructed to report back with recommendations for the reward program, including information on a public service campaign and any potential financial impacts, but no timeline was given.