Policing and Producing the Market: Second Hand Dealer Laws in Onondaga County, NY

• In Event: Policing Capital: The Logic of Pacification

Abstract

Second hand dealer laws—legislation requiring electronic reporting of transactions at pawn shops, scraps yards and antique stores—are increasingly common in the United States. The resultant databases, in the hands of police investigators, become sources of new leads to investigate property theft. This paper examines the case of Onondaga County, NY, where a second hand dealer law created public controversy: aggressive policing operations, complaints from small business owners and eventual veto by the county executive. After the addition of exemptions for antique shops and second hand music stores, the law was reinstated. The police continued to mine the records and mount compliance checks. Using this example, this paper argues that second hand dealer laws are a contemporary example of the productive power of the police to fabricate social order around the logic of accumulation by, in this case, eliminating clandestine market in stolen goods. The rise, fall and reinstitution of the law shows how this new police powers for surveillance was politically negotiated in such a way to both construct administratively legible market relations and generate local consent for them. This paper draws on interviews with state and local officials and records released to me under New York States Freedom of Information Law.

Author

• Brendan McQuade, Binghampton University