A new bill is under consideration in the Virginia senate that would require pawn shops to photograph customers who use their services. However, most pawn shop owners in the area do not feel that this new legislation, should it pass an upcoming vote in the General Laws Committee, will have any significant impact on their business.
Although it may seem like an invasion of privacy, the fact is that pawn shops are already required to keep copies of customer's driver's licenses as well as their Social Security numbers. In cases where the police are investigating the possibility of stolen property moving through a pawn shop, the owners of these businesses must share their documents and computer files with authorities.
As such, adding a photograph to the files is not going to be any hardship on the pawn shops, most of which already have a system in place to do so. In fact, some of these businesses already take photographs of their customers, and a few even ask for a fresh set of fingerprints before completing a transaction.
So, while on the surface, it may seem like this bill might be something that could scare away potential customers from doing business with local pawn shops, the truth of the matter is that it really doesn't change the current amount of scrutiny required to pawn items in Virginia.
In the end, this bill is not really that big a deal, though it may make potential customers clean up a bit before heading into a pawn shop so that they look nice for the camera.