|
|
Vice Mayor Greg Stanton's
North Central News Column
November 2003
Reducing Identity Theft and Document-Related Crimes
Reducing identity theft and document-related crimes As your councilman and a member of the City Council Public Safety subcommittee, it is my job to ensure that public safety remains a number one priority. This includes not only street and property crimes, but also document-related crimes and identity theft.
To victims, these crimes are just as devastating as street crimes, and fighting them should be taken just as seriously. I am proud that the City Council recently provided additional manpower to our police department to reduce white-collar and document-related crimes.
Fraud and forgery create huge financial losses, in fact, last year, identity theft, which effects one in five families, accounted for a $73 billion financial loss nationally, and consumers reported nearly $5 billion in out-of-pocket costs.
Identity theft, forgery and credit card frauds are serial crimes perpetrated by repeat offenders. These offenders obtain personal information through mail theft, burglaries, and sifting through waste containers. This information is then used to create counterfeit checks, pass stolen checks or credit cards and purchase merchandise or get cash.
The city's Document Crime Detail is charged with the investigation of all forgery, credit card fraud, embezzlements with altered documents and identity thefts. These types of investigations are very labor intensive and involve the collection of evidence from a wide array of sources such as banks, businesses and witnesses.
As the perpetrators often live outside the state or even the country, jurisdiction is a challenge. Partnering with financial institutions and other law enforcement agencies allows the police to enhance investigative and prosecutorial strategies. This is done by training bank investigators to prepare "prosecutor-ready" cases, maintain fast tracking of cases with the FBI and prosecutors and increasing security measures such as requiring a fingerprint to supplement identification in cashing checks for non-bank customers. Today's corporate thieves may not be smarter than other thieves, but they have more technological weapons at their disposal. I am confident that our police department will counteract these weapons with advances of their own and reduce these distressing crimes.
As always, if you have comments or questions about this program or any other issue, please feel free to call my office anytime at 602-262-7491 or send e-mail to greg.stanton@phoenix.gov.
Protect yourself from identity theft:
- Protect your Social Security number, credit card numbers, account passwords and other personal information.
2. Minimize the damage in case your wallet gets lost or stolen - leave important information somewhere else.
3. Protect your incoming and outgoing mail.
4. Keep thieves from turning your trash into their cash.
5. Practice home security.
6. Pay attention to your bank account statements and credit card bills.
7. Review your credit report approximately once a year.
8. Practice online or Internet safety.
For more information, go to
www.phoenix.gov/police/dcd1.html.
Last modified on
|
|
|
| | |
| Related
Links |
 |
|
|
