LOS ANGELES—School buses in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) have become the most recent target for catalytic converter thieves, rekindling a debate over whether the district should increase its budget for school police patrols.
Catalytic converters—devices containing expensive precious metals that mitigate toxic exhaust emissions—have been stolen from about 160 LAUSD school buses since January, costing the district roughly $581,000 so far, CBS reported on May 26.
