The Selma Times-Journal

Progress is coming on a crackdown on copper thieves.

A burglary this week left 10 radiators damaged and an unknown amount of copper taken, according to police reports. A bag of copper valued at $15 was recovered by police Wednesday.

Selma City Mayor James Perkins Jr. said, currently, the Selma Police Department has an open relationship with all buyers and recyclers in the Selma-Dallas County area, and recyclers are required by law to gather information on individuals bringing in scrap metal to be recycled.

After the Jan. 30 regional mayors’ meeting, progress is coming on the prevention of copper thefts.

Perkins said Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright is currently working on amendments to an ordinance that will make it even harder to steal copper.

Once the amendment is approved, Perkins said, Bright will then share the ordinance with the other regional mayors, who in turn are going to work to have the ordinance adopted.

The ordinance would then go to the city council for approval.

The reason for the partnership is to drive thefts out of the Black Belt region. “We want to make it so hard for people to sell copper in this area that they won’t do it,” Perkins said.

“They would have to go so far to sell it that it would make it unprofitable.”

Perkins said the long term goal is to create a program that can be adopted and implement ed across the state.

“We can take it to another level,” Perkins said.