A Baltimore City delegate wants to try to regulate machines that buy used cell phones, which critics have charged make it easy for thieves to get rid of stolen phones.
Democrat Luke Clippinger says the bill he expects to file next week would require that phones sold at machines like ecoATM be kept in state for 30 days, giving law enforcement an opportunity to recover stolen phones quickly.
It also would require that transaction logs be made available to investigators as quickly as possible and that the person observing the transaction in real-time through the machine be based in Maryland.
“These machines observe the person who is selling the phone; in the case of ecoATM the person who is selling the phone is observed by a person in San Diego,” Clippinger says.
Clippinger, who also is an Anne Arundel County prosecutor, says he worked with law enforcement to craft his proposal, which would allow a ban passed in Baltimore City to remain and allow local jurisdictions to pass their own laws if they choose.
“If jurisdictions decide they don’t want to ban these machines, we want to make sure that the regulations are strong enough that these machines don’t encourage the problem,” he adds.
EcoATM officials have reached out to Clippinger concerning his proposed legislation. “Our hope is that we can come to something that is a solution that works out best for the people of Baltimore City and the people of Maryland,” says Ryan Kuder, ecoATM’s vice president of marketing.
Kuder says the company is disappointed in a recent decision by General Growth Properties to remove the machines from their malls in Baltimore and Howard counties.
“The ecoATM’s that we’ve been operating in and around Baltimore County have provided a tremendous service to the people of the area,” he says, adding that more than 21,000 devices have been recycled through the machines.
David Keating, a spokesman for General Growth Properties says the machines should be removed from White Marsh and Owings Mills malls, the Mall in Columbia and Towson Town Center by Wednesday. He declined to discuss the reason for the move. A machine at Mondawmin Mall, another GGP property, was removed by mall managers before the Baltimore City Council passed the ban.