Copper theft has moved from nuisance to national threat, according to FCC commissioner Olivia Trusty, who warned that escalating attacks on broadcast, cable, and fiber networks demand tougher penalties and coordinated industry action. Speaking by video at the Copper Theft Crisis: Incident Management and Prosecutorial Collaboration Summit on October 7, she said the damage increasingly stems from low-tech vandalism that disables essential services.
Trusty cited more than 5,700 reported incidents between May and December 2024, affecting about 1.5 million Americans. She pointed to a high-impact case in Van Nuys, CA, where thieves severed 13 fiber cables, disrupting hospitals, schools, a military base, and roughly 50,000 customers. “That is not mischief,” she said. “That is a direct attack on the lifeblood of our economy and our daily life.”
She argued that law has not kept pace with the threat. Federal protections focus on government-owned systems, while most communications infrastructure is privately owned and primarily shielded by uneven state statutes. Sentencing outcomes underscore the gap: in the KITX case, one defendant received 30 months after pleading guilty to transporting stolen goods across state lines, while an accomplice served eight months. Trusty implied that penalties and charging strategies should more consistently reflect the systemic harms that follow these crimes.
Her recommended priorities include hardening vulnerable sites, expanding information-sharing among operators, and partnering early with prosecutors to build cases that capture downstream impacts on public safety and commerce. Trusty urged a clearer federal framework to close jurisdictional gaps and elevate copper theft against communications assets from a property crime to a direct threat to critical infrastructure.