BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1751|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1751
Author: Low (D), et al.
Amended: 8/15/16 in Senate
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE BUS., PROF. & ECON. DEV. COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/27/16
AYES: Hill, Bates, Block, Gaines, Galgiani, Hernandez,
Jackson, Mendoza, Wieckowski
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 6-1, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza
NOES: Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 6/2/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Secondhand goods
SOURCE: California Pawnbrokers Association
DIGEST: This bill makes several changes to the operation of the
California Automated Pawn and Secondhand Dealer System (CAPSS)
operated by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Provides for the Secondhand Goods Law that regulates the sale
or other disposition of secondhand goods. (Business and
Professions Code (BPC) § 21500 et seq.)
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2) Defines a "secondhand dealer" to mean and include any person,
co-partnership, firm or corporation whose business includes
buying, selling, trading, taking in pawn, accepting for sale
on consignment, accepting for auctioning, or auctioning
secondhand tangible personal property, but does not include a
coin dealer or participants at guns shows or events, as
specified. (BPC § 21626(a))
3) Defines "tangible personal property" as all secondhand
tangible personal property which bears a serial number or
personalized initials or inscription or which, at the time it
is acquired by the secondhand dealer, bears evidence of
having had a serial number or personalized initials or
inscription.
(BPC § 21627(a))
4) Defines "tangible personal property", among other things, as
all tangible personal property, new or used, received in
pledge as a security for a loan by a pawnbroker. (BPC §
21627(b)(1))
5) Defines "tangible personal property" to also mean all
tangible personal property that the Attorney General (AG)
statistically determines through the most recent DOJ "Crime
in California" report to constitute a significant class of
stolen goods and requires the DOJ to supply a list of such
personal property to all local law enforcement agencies, post
it on the AG's Web site, and update it annually beginning
January 1, 2016. (BPC § 21627(c)).
6) Defines a "significant class of stolen goods" to mean those
items determined through the DOJ's annual "Crime in
California" report to constitute more than 10% of property
reported stolen in the calendar year preceding the annual
posting of the list of significant classes of stolen goods.
(BPC § 21627(e))
7) Requires every secondhand dealer or coin dealer, as
specified, to report daily or on the first working day after
receipt or purchase of secondhand tangible personal property,
on forms or through an electronic reporting system approved
by the DOJ, all secondhand tangible personal property, except
for firearms, which he or she has taken in trade or pawn,
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accepted for sale on consignment, or accepted for auctioning
to the chief of police or the sheriff as specified. (BPC §
21628)
8) Requires the DOJ, in consultation with appropriate law
enforcement agencies, to develop clear and comprehensive
descriptive categories denoting tangible personal property,
as specified, subject to reporting requirements. (BPC §
21628(d)(1))
9) Defines an "item" to mean any single article; however, with
respect to a commonly accepted grouping of articles that are
purchased as a set, including, but not limited to, a pair of
earrings, or place settings of china, silverware, or other
table ware, "item" refers to the commonly accepted grouping.
(BPC § 21628(d)(5))
This bill:
1) States that it is the intent of the Legislature to clarify
that pawnbrokers and other secondhand dealers are to report
their acquisition of tangible personal property in
descriptive, plain text language commonly used in the pawn
and secondhand industries.
2) Defines "CAPSS" to mean "the California Pawnbroker and
Secondhand Dealer System, which is a single, statewide,
uniform electronic reporting system that receives secondhand
dealer reports and is operated by the DOJ consistent with SCR
63 (Yee, Resolution Chapter 16, Statutes of 2010). The
maintenance and operation of CAPSS is funded by the
Secondhand Dealer and Pawnbroker Fund." Replaces references
to "single, statewide and uniform electronic reporting
system" with "CAPSS".
3) Revises the reporting requirements to require every
secondhand dealer or coin dealer, as specified, to report
daily or no later than the next business day, excluding
weekends and holidays, after receipt or purchase of
secondhand tangible personal property, to CAPSS, all
secondhand tangible personal property, except for firearms,
which he or she has purchased, taken in trade, taken in pawn,
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accepted for sale on consignment, or accepted for auctioning.
4) Revises the property description requirement to be a
complete and reasonably accurate description of the property.
5) Specifies that a report submitted by a pawnbroker or
secondhand dealer is deemed to have been accepted by the DOJ
if a good faith effort has been made to supply all of the
required information. Specifies that an error or omission on
the report be noted, the pawnbroker or secondhand dealer be
notified of the error by the DOJ, and the reporting
pawnbroker or secondhand dealer has three business days from
the notice by the DOJ to amend or correct the report before
being subject to any enforcement violation.
6) Requires a secondhand dealer to report any business
conducted at a gun show to the CAPSS system, as specified.
7) Prohibits the DOJ, chiefs of police, and sheriffs from
collecting any additional information concerning the seller,
the pledger, or the property received by the secondhand
dealer in the report required by statute.
8) States that if there is a future change to the reporting
requirement of CAPSS that substantively alters the reporting
standards, as specified, those changes must be implemented
and operated in compliance with the Administrative Procedures
Act and in implementing and operating a future change to
CAPSS, the DOJ chiefs of police and sheriffs must comply with
current reporting and holding requirements, as specified.
9) Requires a secondhand dealer or coin dealer to
electronically transmit to CAPSS, no later than the next
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business day, on the date of the transaction, excluding
weekends or holidays or, if not possible due to an
electrical, telecommunications, or other malfunction, as soon
as reasonable thereafter, the report of acquisition of
tangible personal property.
10)Deletes the provisions related to reporting on paper forms,
as specified.
11)Deletes current requirements pertaining to the development
and implementation of the CAPSS, as specified.
12)States that this bill is an urgency statute necessary in
order to protect the public from dissemination of stolen
property, make the CAPPS system a cost savings for secondhand
dealers and pawnbrokers, and to require the plain text
property descriptions historically utilized by these
industries to be accepted by the DOJ, just as these plain
text descriptions have historically been accepted by chiefs
of police and sheriffs, at the earliest possible time, it is
necessary that this act take effect immediately.
Background
According to the author, "the need for this legislation arises
because in implementing the [California Automated Pawn and
Secondhand Dealer System (CAPSS)] system, the DOJ is requiring
second hand dealers to input optional information beyond what is
statutorily authorized by the Legislature. [This bill] will
continue the requirement of existing law by specifying that the
plain text property descriptions commonly recognized and
utilized by the pawn and secondhand dealer industries shall be
the sole method of describing property acquired by these
businesses. [This bill] also makes it clear that the CAPSS
system does not expand beyond current law the information that
is required to be collected or reported by secondhand dealers
and pawnbrokers."
According to information provided by the California Pawnbrokers
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Association, there are thousands of different items that are
pawned or bought daily in California by approximately 600
California pawnbrokers. Further, the daily transactions for
pawnbrokers vary from shop to shop with a low of 10 to a high of
600, with the average around 50.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, this bill will
incur unknown potential information technology costs and ongoing
potential staff costs to classify items reported to CAPSS based
on the plain text descriptions submitted by users.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/11/16)
California Pawnbrokers Association (source)
Capital City Loan & Jewelry, II
Empire Jewelry and Loan
Granter Jewelry and Loan Company LLC
Jewelry-N-Loan
Precious Metal Investments
Royal Loan
San Francisco Gold Buyer
The Pawnshop Inc.
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/11/16)
California Peace Officers' Association
California Police Chiefs Association
California State Sheriffs' Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: Supporters underscore that "this bill
will help ensure that we are able to provide our electronic
JUS123 form data directly to law enforcement via the DOJ's
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database as mandated and agreed upon with AB 391. As you are
aware, despite our efforts, the system currently in place is
inadequate for law enforcement and unusable for pawnbrokers in
many respects. AB 1751 addresses these points directly and will
allow for an operable system to be put in place for the benefit
of all."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: Opponents assert that "abandoning
the requirement that the person who is in possession of the item
(the pawnbroker) describe the item in favor of requiring DOJ to
interpret a free-form, plain text description without the
benefit of seeing or holding the item will lead to a database
that contains less-than-accurate information and will severely
limit the utility of this important crime-fighting tool."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 6/2/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Gallagher,
Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez,
Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey,
Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes,
McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Frazier, Beth Gaines, Williams
Prepared by:Mark Mendoza / B., P. & E.D. / (916) 651-4104
8/15/16 20:33:23
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