Outrage as LA begs for $1M, ignores cheap device to battle copper wire theft

Source: New York Post

Two Los Angeles council members moved to pour more than a million additional dollars into streetlight repairs Friday, chasing a problem that is already draining more than $20 million a year from taxpayers while entire neighborhoods sit in the dark. The back-to-back motions, introduced at City Hall Friday by mayoral hopeful and councilwoman Nithya Raman and councilmember Bob Blumenfield, target copper wire theft that has gutted the city’s lighting system and triggered a growing backlog of broken poles. 7 Nithya Raman introduced a motion to shift $380,000 toward streetlight repairs, with most of the funding going to overtime as crews respond to rising copper wire theft.