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Copper wire theft is much more than a nuisance for some municipal public works departments. It is, they say, threatening public safety and cutting into city budgets.

“We’re not going to tolerate this,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a recently held news conference to announce his city was tapping $1 million in contingency funds to help address a backlog of several hundred streetlamps in need of repair due to copper theft.

“They are stealing copper wire and turning off the streetlights. They’re going in and hitting these light posts,” Frey said. “We’re going to make sure they’re arrested.”

“In 2022 we repaired 1.3 miles of wiring for the entire year,” said Bryan Dodds, who was working at the time as Minneapolis Public Works deputy director.  “So far this year, we’ve replaced four and a half miles.”

In hopes of cracking down on copper theft, in 2024 state lawmakers passed legislation requiring copper recyclers to present scrap yards with a license to sell their material.  The law took effect Jan. 1.

Minneapolis officials said it’s too early to determine if the law is deterring thieves.

St. Paul is also managing a backlog of repairs. But, unlike Minneapolis, St. Paul officials report a major decline in streetlight vandalism since the beginning of the year.

“What we’ve seen is a drop of about 50 percent in complaints about copper wire theft,” said St. Paul Public Works Director Sean Kershaw.  “That's a sign that neighborhoods are safer, and that’s a sign that we’re saving hundreds of thousands of dollars repairing the stolen copper wire.”

Kershaw said St. Paul is on track to save $1 million on streetlight repair this year.

Rick Mark owns a smaller-scale scrap yard in Hugo called North Star Recycling. He too has seen changes since the licensure law took effect this year. He’s getting few small-scale customers.

“We have a lot of smaller customers, mom and pops, who generate the copper wire that was sitting in their garage that’s been there for 25 years, and they bring in 5 or 10 pounds. … From that part, it’s gone down substantially,” said Mark.

According to scrap industry representatives, Rick Mark is not alone.

“One of the challenges we’re facing right now is folks who have been caught by law enforcement, even very recently, are getting probation and nothing more,” said lobbyist Jeremy Estenson. He represents the Upper Midwest chapter of the Recycled Materials Association, which claims the licensure law is doing little to reduce copper theft and instead is driving away scrap yard business.

This year’s Legislature moved streetlights into a “critical infrastructure” category which increases penalties for vandalizing them from misdemeanors to felonies. The industry said stiffer penalties are long overdue, but that more needs to be done.

Specifically, Estenson said, the industry supports doing away with the license requirement and instead putting together a state database that scrap dealers would be required to update with specifics on copper they accept for recycling. 

“Scrap theft is a multi-faceted problem, and we think the long-term solution is an ongoing, permanent relationship with law enforcement that requires us to talk, maybe even going beyond the database,” Estenson said.

DFL State Sen. Sandy Pappas of St. Paul agreed the database proposal is a good idea. So, too, would be other refinements, including better defining what copper theft should be targeted, she said. 

But Pappas said the ongoing industry lawsuit challenging the licensing requirement is holding up possible changes to the law.

“When there’s an active lawsuit, we are really discouraged from changing any laws, because it could impact the lawsuit,” said Pappas, adding, “We just don’t do that.”

The new felony-level penalties for stealing copper wire from streetlights take effect in August, as the debate over better ways to prevent thefts in the first place continues on.

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There is plenty of disagreement on how to best deter copper theft. But regulators, scrapyard operators and public works officials welcome new stiffer penalties for the costly crime.

Is a new Minnesota law deterring copper wire theft? It depends on who you ask.

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