Some might be fronts, but they have some strict rules about reporting items to law enforcement regularly (maybe weekly?). Not to say there's not ways to run illegal activity under the noses of law enforcement.

All our stores were on corners. One day, while in #3, I heard sirens and looked out the door in time to see a police car make a U-turn at our corner on two wheels and head up the hill. I went out in time to see another cop car driving over the curbs of the center median and driving straight across the road to the same pawn shop parking lot as the first one was pulling into. A third marked unit was coming down the hill on the wrong side of the street code three.

Later the lady cop who checked our buy book (we bought used clothing from the GI's and so came under the same regulations as pawn shops) came in and I asked her about it.

Seems she'd been in the pawn shop checking their inventory against a list of stolen items when some guy came in with a big box of knockoff CD's of the latest rock & roll hits.

She'd tried to arrest him and he'd tried to resist arrest. As they struggled she'd repeatedly told the pawn shop personnel to call 911 but they'd been hesitant until she threatened to arrest them too (evidently the guy was a good source of merchandise for them). Anyway it went out as an "Officer Needs Help!" call and got an exciting response.