Legislation that intends to address the unprecedented rise in thefts of catalytic converters in Colorado overcame its first major hurdle when lawmakers advanced it out of the Senate transportation committee on Tuesday.
If enacted, Senate Bill 9 would require auto part recyclers to consult with the national motor vehicle title information system to determine whether a catalytic converter has been stolen. Catalytic converters are exhaust emission control devices found in many lower emission and hybrid vehicles that contain precious metals that are trading at record prices.
Catalytic converter thefts in Colorado increased by more than 5,000% from 2019 to 2021, going from 189 to 9,811 reported thefts annually, according to the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority. In Denver, catalytic converter thefts rose by 15,000% in the same timeframe – from 15 to 2,359, according to data from the Denver Police Department.
Sen. Joann Ginal, a sponsor of the bill, said the thefts have risen to “a crisis mode” that needs to be addressed immediately.
“These thefts are happening every single day,” Ginal, D-Fort Collins, said. “It’s happening to our neighbors, it’s happening to our small businesses. People don’t feel safe leaving their car out at night but a lot of people, including myself, don’t have a garage.”
Ginal said the bill will take away the incentives to steal catalytic converters by cutting off the ability to resell them. As a result of the national rise in thefts and supply chain issues, it is very difficult to replace catalytic converters, leading to weeks- or months-long wait periods for parts that can cost between $1,000 and $5,000, Ginal said.
In addition to requiring auto part recyclers to determine if a catalytic converter was stolen, the bill would define catalytic converters as a “major component motor vehicle part” and change the definition of “commodity metal” to include components of catalytic converters. This would allow additional law enforcement resources and agencies to investigate the thefts, including the Commodity Metals Theft Task Force.
Tuesday’s vote to advance the bill came after nearly two hours of public testimony in support of the measure, including from more than a dozen owners of local car dealerships who said catalytic converter thefts are wreaking havoc on their livelihoods.
“Every single day we come in we’re finding catalytic converters that are missing off our cars at our dealership,” said Lloyd Donnelly, a representative of the Colorado Independent Automobile Dealers Association. “We have cars sitting in our lots that we can’t sell because can’t get the catalytic converters we need to put them back on the road.”
Donnelly said the issue is so rampant that police haven’t even come to investigate the thefts at his Lakewood dealership, despite him having surveillance footage of the thefts occurring. Without a catalytic converter, vehicles become legally, and in some cases functionally, inoperable.
Outside of car dealerships, school buses have also fallen victim to the thefts.
Zach Macaluso, founder of the public charter school HOPE Online Learning Academy, said the catalytic converters were stolen from all nine of his school buses. Macaluso said he has not been able to find any replacements and was forced to fix four of the buses using straight piping, which means the buses will not be able to pass emissions tests.
The committee amended the bill to remove two sections that would have attempted to address this supply chain issue by allowing the reuse of aftermarket catalytic converters certified for installation and sale by the Air Quality Control Commission.
Ginal said the committee removed the sections because they would have caused Colorado to lose its federal waiver for emissions standards and cost $20 million to build the facilities to test and certify used catalytic converters. However, the bill’s other sponsor, Sen. Dennis Hisey, said he has not given up on those provisions.
“I think it’s safe to say this is not the last catalytic converter bill you will see,” Hisey, R-Colorado Springs, said. “I do hope to be back in front of this committee with some solutions.”
