"Because identity theft is still a 'nontraditional' crime, some police departments may be unaware of the importance of taking reports of identity theft, much less initiating investigations," according to a General Accounting Office report that was undertaken at the request of Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas.
Departments specializing in such cases are frequently under funded, the report added, and since identity theft cases tend to cross state and other jurisdictional lines, "law enforcement agencies sometimes tend to view identity theft as being 'someone else's problem.'"
Identity-theft victims often have trouble taking the first step of filing a police report, the study found. About 35 percent of victims who contacted the Federal Trade Commission from November 1999 through October 2000 had tried and failed to file a report with local police.
In response, congressional and police groups adopted a resolution in November 2000 calling for "all law enforcement agencies ... to take more positive actions in recording all incidents of identity thefts."
The numbers improved in 2001; the FTC reported that 18 percent of the identity-theft victims who contacted the agency last year had tried and failed to file police reports.
Still, anecdotal evidence indicate under funding and a lack of awareness still stand in the way of making identity theft the top crime-fighting priority lawmakers intended.
Identity theft occurs when someone steals another person's identifying information -- such as a Social Security number or birth date -- and uses it to create a false identity. The thief may use the false identity to get credit cards or take out loans, then leave the victim stuck with the debt.
Stolen credit card numbers and identity theft affect up to 700,000 Americans each year, the Justice Department said. In 2000, credit card companies Visa and MasterCard reported fraud losses topping $1 billion. Allegations of Social Security number fraud have increased from 11,000 in 1998 to 65,000 last year.
The federal Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998 made identity theft a separate crime against the victim and prescribed punishment from a fine to up to 15 years in prison. Since then, most states enacted laws that have criminalized identity theft.
The GAO report focused on the 10 states with the highest incidences of reported identity theft or the longest-standing statutes against it. They are Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.
Though there is no centralized data on enforcement, anecdotes tell the story, the report said.
In January, for example, a grand jury in Florida reported that some of the state's law enforcement agencies "are reluctant to take identity theft complaints and do not generate reports in some cases."
Funding, too, is a roadblock to enforcement in several states. A deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County, Calif., told investigators that that there are not enough prosecutors to handle the county's identity theft cases.
Investigators heard similar complaints from a supervisor in the Consumer Fraud Division of the Cook County, Ill., State's Attorney's Office, reportedly the second largest prosecutor's office in the nation. The supervisor said more money was needed to train local police agencies on how to handle complex cases involving multiple victims and voluminous documents.
A chief deputy attorney in Philadelphia said, "given competing priorities and other factors, there is little incentive" for police departments in Pennsylvania to spend money on identity-theft probes.
Identity theft cases often cross jurisdictional lines; a thief may steal information in one city and use it in another. Some jurisdictions tend to refer victims to other jurisdictions -- which, in turn, refer the victims back to the first jurisdiction, the report found.
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