Burglary victims in Spokane County – and their numbers are growing – can take a measure of satisfaction from steps Sheriff Mark Sterk has taken to make property crime a little less profitable.

Sterk has put pawn shops, second-hand stores and antique shops in the area on notice that they’ll be held accountable for doing business with known crooks. Reputable businesses that follow the law have nothing to fear from the sheriff’s policy, but shady operators whom thieves count on, in effect, to fence stolen items have cause to sweat.

Under state law, such businesses can be charged with a gross misdemeanor if they knowingly buy goods from anyone convicted of robbery, burglary or trafficking in stolen property. To plug the obvious loophole – how are they expected to recognize the bad guys? – Sterk sent all of them a list of some 300 area felons who fit the description. The list went out with a letter notifying store operators they could face criminal charges if they ignore the law.

Assuming Sterk plans to back his warnings up with action against those who don’t take him seriously, the strategy makes burglary, car prowling and other property theft ventures less promising. And since such crimes go hand in hand with drug abuse – especially the virulent methamphetamine scourge – benefits will be twofold.

The region’s meth headache is largely blamed for the city of Spokane’s standing as having the worst crime rate among Washington state’s 10 largest cities in 2004. Here, as across the nation, violent crime dropped last year. But property crime jumped in Spokane even though the national trend was slightly down.

Most burglaries and other property crimes have a link to drugs, law enforcement authorities say. Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Barbieri once went so far as to declare, “I have not seen a property crime yet that does not have a drug connection.”

Drug users need money to feed their habits and a preferred way to get it is to break into a car, house or business and take what’s of value. That leads to increased identity theft (from credit cards and checkbooks) and property theft, which is lucrative only if someone such as a cooperative pawn broker is willing to pay for a hot camera, jewelry, computer or stereo.

Moreover, the spiral is self-accelerating: Meth is frighteningly addictive, making it difficult for those who have been convicted to succeed on parole. The more they steal, the more they can use. The more they use, the more they have to steal.

Above-board businesses don’t need a stern letter to make them do the right thing to help interrupt this cycle. In pawn broker Larry Karlson’s words, “We live in this community.”

Sadly, some folks have less respect for civic responsibility.

Sterk’s tougher policy won’t end property crime in Spokane County, but it will remove some of the incentive. Every burglary that’s discouraged saves at least one citizen the grief of being victimized. And if it prevents some offenders from supporting a destructive meth addiction, that’s a significant achievement, too.