On Tuesday, the L.A. City Council voted unanimously to approve motions regarding the theft of copper wires plaguing the city and to study the feasibility of using solar-powered street lights.

Crackdown on Telecommunications Wire

The city council first asked the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would prohibit the possession of telecommunications cable by any individual or business except for telecommunications companies and their approved subcontractors and recyclers as a way to further crack down on thefts.

The council also voted to require that wire labeled as belonging to the city of L.A. be used in city street lighting systems moving forward to make it easier to identify when someone has stolen property belonging to the city.

The Sixth Street Bridge has been a major target of copper wire thieves, escalating into a widespread problem that has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to replace and repair damaged infrastructure. It has resulted in street lights, traffic signals, railroad crossings, fire hydrants, sprinkler systems, and power transmissions to stop working.

“Imagine the consequences when a train control is not functioning because someone has decided to steal wire out of that,” L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian, who serves on the Metro board, said during a press conference at LAPD headquarters on Tuesday to announce the citations of recycling facility operators who have purchased the stolen goods and the recent arrests of copper wire thieves.

Downtown L.A. and the east side of L.A. have especially been hit hard by copper wire thefts. City Councilmember Kevin de León co-introduced several motions with Westside Councilmember Traci Park to combat copper wire thefts.

“Copper wire theft affects every corner of our city, puts lives at risk, and costs taxpayers millions of dollars every year. It’s well past time to address this reckless criminal behavior and hold these thieves accountable,” Councilwoman Park said in a previous statement. “Our citywide reward program will encourage community members to come forward with information about copper thefts, making it clear that we all have a role to play in protecting our neighborhoods.”

The city council’s motion states, “The Heavy Metal Task Force has conducted numerous operations resulting in over 80 arrests. During these arrests, many of the individuals have been found to be in possession of telecommunications cable. This cable is available for sale only to those in the telecommunications industry and is something the average member of the public would not be able to acquire.”

The motion further states, “Thieves cut the wiring in order to remove the copper wiring from the cables and sell them to metal recyclers. However, because the telecommunications cable is often tied together with fiber optic cables, cutting the telecom cable also interrupts fiber optic communication that provides emergency services.”

Solar Powered Street Lights

In a related move, the city council also voted Tuesday to approve a motion put forth by Westside Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky and Heather Hutt for the L.A. Bureau of Street Lighting to report back on the feasibility of installing solar-powered street lighting.

According to the motion, the use of solar-powered lights could reduce the costs to power the city’s expansive streetlight network and minimize the impacts of vandalism due to copper wire and power theft, providing more reliability to the network. Solar-powered lights also reduce electricity consumption and represent significant investments in clean and green technology.

“Street lighting is both a quality of life and public safety measure, reducing crimes by enhancing night time visibility and making our city safer to navigate after sundown,” the motion states. “Over the past ten years, the city has seen increasing incidents of vandalism against its streetlight network which have resulted in widespread outages and extended the average repair time to restore lighting.”

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