Defending America Against Identity Crime Identity crimes are among those new, emerging types of crimes that are just beginning to show their impact on communities. Identity Crime Toolkit for Police Executives Identity crimes are among the fastest growing and most serious crimes affecting our citizens today. This toolkit will help law enforcement agencies make systemic changes, and ultimately, reduce victimizations by identity crimes. Table of Contents I. Introduction ...........................................................................2 II. Executive Briefing ....................................................................2 International Association of Bank of America Chiefs of Police III. Leadership and Management .......................................................4 Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial A. Assessment of Current Status .................................................4 Founded in 1893, the International institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle Association of Chiefs of Police is the market businesses and large corporations with a full range of B. Tools for Improving Effectiveness ............................................6 world’s oldest and largest associa- banking, investing, asset management and other financial C. Further Information ............................................................7 tion of law enforcement executives and risk-management products and services. The company IV. Officer Training .......................................................................8 with more than 19,000 members in provides unmatched convenience in the United States, 93 countries. For more information, serving more than 54 million consumer and small business A. Assessment of Current Status .................................................9 visit www.theiacp.org. relationships with more than 5,700 retail banking offices, B. Tools for Improving Effectiveness .......................................... 10 nearly 17,000 ATMs and award-winning online banking with more than 19.8 million active users. Bank of America is the C. Further Information .......................................................... 11 No. 1 overall Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in V. Agency Partnerships................................................................ 12 the United States and the No. 1 SBA lender to minority- A. Assessment of Current Status ............................................... 12 owned small businesses. The company serves clients in 175 countries and has relationships with 98 percent of the U.S. B. Tools for Improving Effectiveness .......................................... 13 Fortune 500 companies and 79 percent of the Global Fortune C. Further Information .......................................................... 14 500. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. For more information, visit VI. Community Outreach .............................................................. 15 www.bankofamerica.com. A. Assessment of Current Status ............................................... 15 B. Tools for Improving Effectiveness .......................................... 16 C. Further Information .......................................................... 18 VII. Attachments......................................................................... 19 A. Sample Job Description for an Identity Crime Specialist ............... 19 B. Guidelines for Taking a Police Report on Identity Crime................ 20 C. Guidelines for Helping Residents Affected by Identity Crimes ........ 22 D. Guidelines for Investigating Identity Crimes.............................. 23 E. Checklist for Investigating Identity Crimes ............................... 24 F. Typical Fraud Schemes ....................................................... 26 G. Community Outreach Flyer...................................................28 No. 1 I. Introduction leadership to demonstrate to line officers that these crimes really do matter at the local level, and war- rant the attention of the local law enforcement agency. This toolkit is intended to help you, as the chief On October 17, 2006, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and Bank of America (BAC) executive of your agency, to lead that change in perceptions among officers. announced a three-year partnership to create a national strategy aimed at helping consumers and law enforcement understand and respond to identity crime. In fact, identity crimes are among the fastest growing, and most serious, crimes affecting our citizens today. The impact of these crimes can be devastating, and the perpetrators may victimize many people Through joint efforts, the partnership hopes to raise citizen awareness of identity crimes, including in many places before they are even noticed, let alone apprehended. Making systemic changes that guidance to prevent being victimized and steps to take when suspecting or experiencing identity crime. will improve identification, apprehension, and successful prosecution of identity criminals is essential to The strategy will also bolster law enforcement’s expertise in responding to identity crime and conducting reducing victimization. This toolkit will help law enforcement agencies make such systemic changes, and investigations. ultimately, reduce victimizations by identity crimes. The primary goal of the partnership is to educate both the public and law enforcement officials in the U.S. These changes might include: and abroad on ways to prevent and respond to identity crime. • Assuming Leadership. Police chiefs are uniquely positioned to influence the behavior of both As the first joint project, the partnership launched a Web site, www.idsafety.org, aimed at educating both crime-fighters and potential victims. By providing local level leadership that demonstrates the Executives for Police Toolkit Identity Crime consumers and law enforcement about identity crime. It marks the first time that the banking industry importance of preventing and responding to identity crime, police chiefs can significantly reduce and law enforcement have come together to create a Web site to help consumers and law enforcement victimizations in all of our communities. officials understand and respond to identity crime. • Training Officers on the pervasive nature of identity crimes; state and federal laws; how to Recognizing the special challenges this type of crime poses for local law enforcement, the IACP has spot other criminals who may have links to identity crimes; how to help victims; and how to created this toolkit for police executives. This resource can be used in conjunction with those investigate a crime effectively. available on www.idsafety.org to ensure that police leadership is able to meet these challenges head on. • Creating Agency Partnerships to enable collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, prosecutors’ offices, the business community, and the public on prevention, investigation, II. Executive Briefing and response. It is not news that the digital age has brought great change to every aspect of our lives. As always, • Educating the Public about how to avoid becoming a victim and how to respond at the first change brings new forms of public safety risks and challenges. For many police departments, identity signs of becoming a victim of identity crime. Public education might, in some cases, include crimes are among those new, emerging types of crimes that are just beginning to show their impact on helping your legislature understand how to improve state laws to protect victims better and/or communities. supporting your state associations in lobbying for legislative action on these crimes. Defending America Against Identity Crime America Defending For police, these crimes are complex. Often the perpetrators live in another jurisdiction, and are not It is noteworthy that most departments will need to embrace a different way of thinking about crime going to be arrested by the local law enforcement agency. But the victims are local. The victim’s avenue when focusing on identity crime. The goal in investigating identity crimes must include restoring victims to restoring his/her life to pre-crime status begins at his/her local police department, with the simple act to their pre-crime status. Police have a central role in helping to do this, and without police partici- of filing a police report.1 pation, victims will be frustrated in their attempts to restore their good credit and their good names. Clearance rates, normally a central concern of police in investigating crimes, are less important in this The fact that victims need to file a local police report to trigger the steps necessary to restore their arena for a variety of reasons, including that the arrest may well happen outside the police department’s names and credit requires that police departments across the country actively work to create a change jurisdiction and also that identity crimes do not count against a jurisdiction’s Unified Crime Reports (UCR) in law enforcement attitudes about these kinds of crimes. Today, many police officers believe that they statistics2. For these reasons, it is critically important that cultural shifts occur in departments around have no role in identity crime, or that victims should start their restoration with banks or credit compa- this issue to prevent and investigate these crimes. nies. This is simply not possible. The purpose of this toolkit is to help police leaders