• The Identity Crime Video/CD-Rom project is a joint effort between the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Federal Trade Commission. It is designed to provide information and resources regarding Identity Crime to local and state law enforcement officers.
• The goal of this project is to provide a user-friendly, convenient tool to local and state law enforcement that will enhance their understanding of identity crime, encourage them
to become more involved in combating this crime and provide to them the resources available to law enforcement officers as well as victims.
• The Identity Crime video/CD-Rom project consists of two parts. The first is a short video designed to be shown to police officers at their roll call meetings which typically
take place before officers begin their daily shift. These roll call meetings are generally used as forums to pass out pertinent information to police officers. The second part of
the project is a resource guide for law enforcement officers. This resource guide not only provides information that law enforcement officers can give to victims but includes
investigative resources officers can use in combating identity crimes.
• In the video, law enforcement officers from around the United States share their experiences in combating identity crime and what was working for them. Officers from
the following departments are featured in the "roll call" video portion of the project:
- Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
- Chicago Police Department
- Greenville, South Carolina City Police Department
- New York State Police
- Schererville, Indiana Police Department
- Nassau County, New York Police Department
- Greenville County, South Carolina Sheriffs Department
- Baltimore County, Maryland Police Department
- Huntington Beach, California Police Department
- U.S. Postal Inspection Service
- U.S. Secret Service
• Identity crime is defined as the theft or misuse of personal or financial identifiers in order to gain something of value and/or facilitate other criminal activity. The different types of
identity crime include Identity Theft, Credit Card/Access Device Fraud, Check Fraud, Bank Fraud, False Identification Fraud and Passport/Visa Fraud. Investigating identity
crime is important because it involves multiple victims, often has a large dollar loss, is used by organized criminal groups, and is usually associated with other crimes such as
drugs/narcotics trafficking, mail theft/fraud, money laundering, electronic/computer crime and terrorism.
• The best way to assist victims is by giving them the resources they need to recover from this crime. Resources available on the CD-Rom for distribution by local departments
include:
- The Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft Victim Guidebook
- The Federal Trade Commission's Sample Affidavit
- Documents from the ID Theft Resource Center
• Finally, the Identity Crime Resource Project provides officers with easy access to investigative resources they can use to combat identity crime were located on the Identity
Crime CD-Rom. Resources such as:
- A Best Practices Guide for Identity Crime
- An Identity Crime Incident Report Form
- Contact information for the different federal agencies involved in identity crime
- Information on different databases and networks they could access
- Educational information on skimming, check fraud, and access device fraud
- Sample policies from the International Association of Chief of Police
- Contact information for credit card companies
- Sample victim guides as well as guides for officers
- The Best Practices Guide to Seizing Electronic Evidence
• All of these resources, as well as the video, are combined onto a CD-Rom. The Identity Crime CD-Rom is being sent to every law enforcement agency in the United States, a
total of more than 40,000 different departments. These departments are able to print out these resources in addition to making copies of the Identity Crime CD-Rom. The
intention of this joint effort is to give local and state law enforcement officers all the information they need to not only assist victims but to begin investigating identity crimes.