California AB 2633

Existing law imposes upon secondhand dealers and coin dealers a uniform, statewide, state-administered program of regulation of persons whose principal business is buying, selling, trading, auctioning, or taking in pawn tangible personal property, as defined, and requires a secondhand dealer or coin dealer to report secondhand tangible personal property that they acquire, except as specified, to the California Pawn and SecondhandDealer System (CAPSS) operated by the Department of Justice, as specified. Existing law defines "tangible personal property" for these purposes to include, among other things, all tangible personal property that the Attorney General statistically determines through the most recent Department of Justice crime data to constitute a significant class of stolen goods. Existing law further defines "significant class of stolen goods" to mean those items determined through the Department of Justice's most recent OpenJustice Web portal update 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. Existing law makes a violation of these provisions a misdemeanor, as specified. This bill would remove the term "principal" from the provisions that regulate secondhand dealers, making them applicable, instead, to persons whose business is buying, selling, trading, auctioning, or taking in pawn tangible personal property. By expanding the persons subject to the reporting requirement, the violation of which is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make the above-described provisions inapplicable to coin dealers and make other related and conforming changes. The bill would make the provisions that regulate secondhand dealers inapplicable to tangible personal property that has been acquired from a nonprofit organization or as a bulk purchase of donated items. The bill would also delete the definition of a "significant class of stolen goods," thereby potentially expanding the definition of "tangible personal property." By expanding the items subject to the reporting requirement, the violation of which is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires the chief of police, sheriff, or police commission to accept an application for licensure and to grant a license to a qualified applicant, as specified. Existing law requires the licensing authority to submit the application to the Department of Justice before granting the license. If the Department of Justice does not comment on the application within 30 days after the submission, existing law authorizes the licensing authority to grant the applicant a license. This bill would prohibit a city, county, city and county, or any other state agency from issuing a license or permit to allow any entity to conduct business as a secondhand dealer without the entity having a state secondhand dealer license issued pursuant to the provisions described above. The bill would reiterate that any person conducting business as a secondhand dealer is required to report secondhand tangible personal property that they acquire to the CAPSS operated by the Department of Justice, as specified. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.