SPRINGFIELD (AP) — The price of metal has plummeted since the summer, but that hasn’t stopped thieves from stealing pipes and stripping utility poles.

From one end of Oregon to the other, police continue to find can-you-top-this examples of brazen metal-and-wire thieves.

In Lane County, for example, thieves in November stole a 200- to 300-pound bronze statue from the University of Oregon. The next month, hundreds of rural residents lost phone service when someone stole almost 500 feet of Qwest phone line.

Graveyards thefts have almost become mundane. Funeral homes send one Eugene metal recycler regular updates on missing headstone plaques.

The ravaging continues despite tougher laws passed by the 2007 Legislature, leading some lawmakers to conclude even more needs to be done in the upcoming session.

Lawmakers and interest groups have yet to agree if it’s better to put more thieves behind bars or place more regulations on scrap metal recyclers.

The 2007 laws were aimed at recyclers, requiring them to make a copy of a valid photo ID from all sellers, maintain video surveillance and keep a record of sales for one year.

Ideas coming out of the Methamphetamine Task Force, a group commissioned by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, are almost universally focused on the point of sale.

The coalition calls for a mandatory reporting system between recyclers and local police. As with pawn shop records, police would be able to go through and match theft reports with inventory logs to catch thieves.

Currently, police must visit scrap yards to search for records, said Detective Johnann Schneider of the Eugene Police Department.

“They don’t have the time to call me about every little thing,” Schneider said. “They don’t see the theft reports that I see, and I don’t see what’s coming into their shop.”

The meth task force also wants to require recyclers to pay sellers with a check that is held for 10 days before being mailed to a physical address. The wait removes the instant gratification of cash, while an actual address gives police another way of catching a suspected thief.

“I’m not going in starry-eyed and thinking that what we are doing is going to be a sure fix,” said state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a member of the task force. “But based on what we have seen in other states, we will have a reduction in metal theft.”

Another group, the Oregon Metal Theft Coalition, supports harsher sentencing. “I’m not speaking ill of any bill, because the commonality is that we want to try and fix the problem,” said Jeff Stone, coalition chairman. “The big question is what bill is going to get legs and what bill will have broad support?”

Metal recyclers, such as Chris Gerlitz, general manager of Schnitzer Steel, are willing to speak against further burdens on their business.

Gerlitz estimated that it cost Schnitzer in the “neighborhood of six figures” to comply with the 2007 legislation. Among other steps, it had to outfit its Eugene, Bend, Grants Pass and White City locations with security cameras.

As for mandatory reporting and payments by check, Gerlitz said those measures would breed intermediaries to serve as a buffer between recyclers and thieves.

“The people we deal with are wily,” Gerlitz said. “If you say no to one thing, they step back, analyze and find another way.”