By David Downey | Contributing Writer
Daryl Terrell calls it the “one and you’re done” law.
It’s something that may be helping to curb the explosion of catalytic converter thefts that has frustrated many vehicle owners across the Inland Empire in recent years.
A frequent speaker at meetings around Riverside County, the sharply dressed, 56-year-old Moreno Valley man has been lobbying local government bodies on a variety of topics since the mid-1990s.
In 2022, Terrell became alarmed when a coworker at a home improvement store faced significant hardship after someone cut a catalytic converter off his car. The man managed to find another way to work in the short term, but repairs cost him $1,500, Terrell said.
“Plus, on social media you were hearing all the time that people’s catalytic converters were being stolen,” he said.
Terrell decided he would do something about it.
He pressed officials in his hometown, as well as in downtown Riverside, to pass tough laws to deter thieves. On the same day — May 17, 2022 — he spoke to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors and the Moreno Valley City Council.
A little more than a year later, in September 2023, the county board adopted an ordinance.
Two months after that, Moreno Valley followed.
Expanding campaign
Buoyed by that success, he decided to take his campaign to the rest of Riverside County, after being informed the county’s ordinance could be enforced only in unincorporated areas.
As of January, following the city of Riverside’s adoption of an ordinance, all 28 county municipalities had measures on the books, according to Terrell.
He said he personally visited 19 cities. A few already had adopted such laws on their own before he launched his campaign.
The ordinances generally make it a misdemeanor crime for someone to possess any catalytic converter not attached to a vehicle, absent proof of ownership. Violators can be fined up to $1,000.
Terrell calls them “one and you’re done” ordinances.
Now Terrell is looking beyond Riverside County.
He spoke to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 10, lobbied the Los Angeles County supervisors on Jan. 7 and paid a visit to the Orange County Board of Supervisors Jan. 28.
And he’s not stopping there.
But he has no plans to attend a San Bernardino County meeting. Leaders in the neighboring jurisdiction passed a similar law a year before Riverside County did.
Some San Bernardino County cities — among them Chino Hills and Rancho Cucamonga — passed measures around the same time.
Making an impact
In June 2022, the Chino Hills Police Department led a multi-agency enforcement sweep that seized 112 unlawfully held catalytic converters and arrested 28 people, according to a news release.
Then, in September 2022, the Chino Hills City Council adopted an ordinance that, like the ones in Riverside County, made it unlawful to have a detached catalytic converter in one’s possession.
Chino Hills, like other communities, took action as catalytic converter thefts soared throughout the Inland Empire, officials said.
The devices that help reduce air pollution are hot items because they contain valuable metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium, officials say, and can be pulled off vehicles in just a few minutes. Thieves then can sell them for hundreds of dollars to metal recyclers.
In Chino Hills at least, so far the new local law seems to be paying off.
After 147 catalytic converter thefts were reported in that city in 2022, the number of thefts declined to 55 for all of 2023 and 26 last year, city spokesperson Nicole Freeman wrote in an email.
In a statement, Chino Hills Police Chief Al Girard said: “The notable decline in catalytic converter thefts over the past few years can be attributed to a combination of factors including the passing of the ordinance.”
Girard also credited good investigative work, technology investments and residents’ diligence in reporting suspicious activity.
As for Terrell, he persuaded Riverside County officials to pass a law in part by pointing out San Bernardino County’s adoption of a similar measure, said Jeff Greene, former chief of staff for former Riverside County Supervisor Kevin Jeffries.
Greene said Terrell provided a copy of the text to Jeffries’ office.
“It was his hard work that got it done — and persistence,” Greene said Thursday, Feb. 6.
“He wasn’t a yeller and screamer. He was solution oriented,” said Greene, who now works as a legislative advocacy and government affairs analyst in the Riverside County Executive Office.
Making it personal
Terrell has long made a habit of dressing in a coat and tie when he goes before a local body. That’s by design.
“I do it because my late aunt used to tell me all the time that when you go before a board you should dress professionally, so that they will take you seriously,” he said.
Terrell’s message to city councils and county boards on catalytic converter theft has been consistent: the state Legislature hasn’t done enough to address the problem and it is up to local bodies to stand in the gap.
State law makes it illegal to possess nine catalytic converters, under Assembly Bill 641, which was signed into law in late 2023. Terrell calls it “the eight, you skate law,” and argues that instead thieves should be held accountable if found to be in possession of one converter.
Terrell often emphasizes the hardships such thefts cause.
“Catalytic converter thefts are not victimless crimes,” Terrell told a Riverside City Council committee in September, according to a meeting videotape.
“They are crimes against all of us, but especially the most vulnerable in the community. And sometimes they escalate into violence.”
Terrell told committee members that many workers in the Inland Empire drive to jobs to support their families.
“And God forbid that one of these thefts occur to them,” he said. “Many of these families would be forced to choose between car repairs and paying their bills.”
The ‘bulldog’
Sean Mill, a Riverside City Council member who sits on the Safety, Wellness and Youth Committee that Terrell spoke to, said in an interview that his city would have adopted an ordinance to address the problem even if Terrell had not brought it up.
But Mill said Terrell brought urgency and humanized the issue, helping council members to see how such thefts hit lower-income families especially hard. Those families often have only one car, he said, “and that’s their lifeline to the world.”
“I love Daryl’s passion,” he said.
At the September meeting, Councilmember Chuck Conder told Terrell: “Daryl, your middle name has got to be Bulldog.”
With his sights now set on the greater Southern California region, Terrell said he believes that if enough counties pass tough ordinances the problem will begin to ease throughout the state.
In addressing the L.A. County supervisors, Terrell said, “I would like you guys to join us to close the loophole. And maybe we can hold these people accountable statewide.”
Former San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos, who serves as external relations co-director for UC Riverside’s Presley Center of Crime & Justice Studies, called the ordinance model “a start.”
Ramos said he believes rooting out the problem, however, will require not just passing tough laws on the theft of converters but targeting the economics that motivate thieves to commit the crime.
“You need to go after those who are purchasing them by the tens and hundreds,” Ramos said.
“If you steal a catalytic converter and there is nowhere to go to sell it, then it is done,” he said.
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