FRANKFORT, Ky. — State lawmakers want to make penalties for copper theft stiffer. Senate Bill 64 passed unanimously through a House committee Wednesday, and now moves to the full chamber for action.
The bill would reclassify street lights, telephone wires and internet lines as critical infrastructure. It would classify vandalizing any of those structures as a felony.
“It has gotten prolifically worse throughout all over Kentucky, primarily in eastern Kentucky is where it kind of started in my area that I saw on the news every night when I turn on the television, and then we start hearing complaints from KYTC and Louisville Metro,” State Sen. Brandon Storm, R-London, told Spectrum News.
Lighting along Louisville highways has been a target. Last October, the city formed a task force to focus on the issue after hundreds of light poles were vandalized.
“There’s estimates that anywhere between 30 and 50% of the lighting [in Jefferson County] is inoperable due to these types of crimes,” said Louisville Metro Police Department Deputy Chief Ryan Bates.
The state is even investing in solar powered lights as an alternative.
“Lighting obviously increases visibility, which would increase people’s reaction time. So that’s why I think this was good this was introduced. I think it drives home the seriousness of what they’re actually doing when they take this wire,” Bates said.
Another issue that sparked the bill—thieves targeting fiber optic lines in search of cable.
“We have to protect our hospitals, our law enforcement, our schools and things of that nature. And so we just want to stop this,“ Storm said.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of people stealing copper from state-owned light poles.
