\n\n\n\nThere was a state court ruling a few years ago that made it harder to prove theft - like, the fact you caught a strung-out dude driving a stolen car with a shaved-down key isn\u2019t enough if you didn\u2019t see him take it and he says \u201cuh, some random guy gave it to me\u201d, which such dudes know to say by now.
Most states have closed that loophole with a\u00a0\u201cReceiving Stolen Property\u201d charge (looking it up, Oregon\u2019s is called \u201cTheft by Receiving\u201d). The threshold for that is simply that a normal person would have a reasonable suspicion that the goods they have\u2026ahem\u2026acquired are stolen. Any competent district attorney would have the\u00a0\u201crandom guy\u201d or\u00a0\u201cmy buddy\u201d defense destroyed in a heartbeat.
\nI would say the culprit is more likely that the police don\u2019t have the manpower to go after car thieves anymore, and they\u2019ve said as much to local news.
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The law thing is real. I\u2019d heard of it before that article was published, even before my motorcycle was stolen out of my driveway this year.
NOW, it\u2019s absolutely possible that those defenses could be \u201cdestroyed\u201d with enough effort - more extensive interrogations, detectives beating the bushes of the homeless transient communities (where people do barter with others they just know as \u201cthis one guy\u201d) to undermine the claim, court time with a good prosecutor to undermine the story on the stand \u2013 but that that consumes more resources per conviction than the DA\u2019s office\u2019s resources/priorities/culture can support, while the previous open-and-shut, show-the-judge-the-burglary-tools approach was sustainable.
It\u2019s also totally possible that the PPD is under-resourced - I\u2019ve heard suggestions to that effect, that they weren\u2019t as fluffed out after the last budget crunch ended, that they haven\u2019t kept track as the city boomed and the low cost of living that kept it livable for the poor came to an end, that the #resistance energy is pressing to divert more resources away from criminal justice.
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