Gore Seeks Tougher Law Against Theft of Identity

Law and order is good politics--even on the information superhighway.

So, Vice President Al Gore, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, plans to push for tougher laws to protect victims of identity theft when he visits the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s innovative anti-fraud units today.

Detectives in these groups investigate nonviolent crimes whose victims rarely are threatened, physically injured or killed. But in numbers, at least, cyber crimes and identity theft are outpacing follow-home robberies, carjackings and many of the old economy felonies leading local television news broadcasts.

These are Information Age crimes involving identity theft and computers--new economy twists to such traditional criminal enterprises as impersonation, theft and fraud.

Although law enforcement agencies typically respond to crime in traditional ways--taking reports, making arrests, building cases--sometimes the sheer number of crimes drives law enforcement’s response.

The Sheriff’s Department has recognized the boom in these white collar crimes--identity theft is expected to nearly quadruple in three years--and assembled task forces of specially trained detectives to focus on them. Identity fraud criminals essentially steal victims’ names, credit or Social Security card numbers and addresses to establish charge accounts, rack up huge bills, buy cars or even houses, and some commit other crimes under their assumed names.

Sheriff’s Department officials estimate that identity theft will rise from 448 cases in 1997 to a projected 1,664 this year. In 1999, the caseload was 928. The Los Angeles Police Department also has experienced similarly large increases in these types of crimes.

The vice president, who is preparing for his visit to the Sheriff’s Department by spending the night at the home of two deputies, plans to support legislation being introduced in Washington today by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The bill seeks to prohibit the sale of Social Security numbers as a way of protecting people’s privacy, according to a Feinstein spokesman.

The Sheriff’s Department is among the first law enforcement agencies in the country to create a specialized unit dealing with identity fraud. Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a San Diego-based nonprofit consumer advocate, said she believes the unit could serve as a model for other departments across the nation.

“I think that what the L.A. Sheriff’s Department has done is cutting-edge,” Givens said. “I’m quite interested in what they learn from this endeavor. . . . I just think it’s a promising model.”

The identity-theft unit, a pilot program that started last year, focuses on several areas including departmentwide training and public education and awareness on this type of crime. The unit works with such public and private agencies as the Department of Motor Vehicles, banks, credit card companies, among others, to coordinate efforts. The unit also has developed a guidebook for victims, with numbers to call for information and help, as well as guides for field deputies.

Problems abound with these types of complex cases: Investigators often are faced with multiple crimes--financial and impersonation being just two. The easiest cases, for example, can take 60 hours of investigation, said Deputy Joe Dulla. Often, there is a long lag time between commission of the crimes and the police investigation. As a result, investigators are faced with cold leads and must rely on distant memories to build cases.

“The lag time really kills us,” Dulla said. “It makes the probability of solving the case go right down.”

The Sheriff’s Department, along with law enforcement agencies in Sacramento, Santa Clara and Alameda, also created a cyber-crime task force under the state-funded High Technology Theft Apprehension and Prosecution program. Combining detectives, investigators and district attorneys, the task forces focus on all aspects of computer crime from hacking, software piracy to computer theft.