The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

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August 2, 2010

City passes pawn shop law

Charles Oliver

The Dalton City Council voted 4-0 Monday to require businesses that buy jewelry and precious metals to take part in the city’s pawn shop database.

Those businesses will now have to photograph the items they buy and the individuals they buy them from. Those photographs are then placed in a database that the Dalton Police Department, the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement agencies can search.

Law enforcement officials say the database allows them to more quickly access the records of those shops to look for any stolen items. Council members also said the new law will put pawn shops and gold buyers on an equal footing when it comes to buying gold, silver and jewelry.

But when the city first proposed adding gold buyers to the database two month ago, some owners complained about the costs of acquiring the computer equipment and cameras, which they said could cost thousands of dollars.

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