Police Department June 28, 2004 Frederick P. Horn Presiding Judge of the Superior Court County of Orange*

"The Orange County District Attorney, the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Department and the city police departments in Orange County take steps to form and actively participate in a countywide Regional Identity Theft Task Force comprised of representatives of each of these agencies. The task force should seek the cooperation and participation of the United States Postal Inspector, the United States Secret Service, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service and the United States Federal Trade Commission (Finding 3)." RESPONSE The Anaheim Police Department has three detectives assigned to work identity theft related crimes reported within our jurisdiction. Once a determination has been made that a crime has been committed, resources from the federal government (including the United States Postal Inspector, Secret Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Federal Trade Commission) are already available to provide local assistance or assume jurisdiction for the investigation if necessary. P.O. Box 3369 Anaheim, California 92803-3369 www.anaheim.net Judge Horn June 28, 2004 The forming of a countywide regional task force would not benefit the Anaheim Police Department. Sufficient resources and cooperation currently exists between law enforcement agencies. Our detectives attend monthly meetings with the Orange County Fraud and Credit Card Investigators Association, the Southern California Fraud Investigators Association and the International Association of Fraud and Credit Card Investigators Association. These meetings include law enforcement agencies from the local and federal levels and the private sector such as: All 21 Orange County Municipal law enforcement agencies Orange County District Attorney's Office • Long Beach Police Department Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department California Department of Justice California Department of Insurance • California Department of Health Services • United States Postal Service United States Secret Service Major financial institutions (banks, credit unions, credit card services, • mortgage corporations and private sector investigative services) Costco Wholesale Council of Aging Home Depot, Inc. Identity Theft 911 Ralph's Grocery Company TransUnion ٠ Western Collection Recovery • In addition, personnel assigned to investigate identity thefts at the Anaheim Police Department are available for other investigations as needed. Maintaining control of investigative staff is crucial at a time of limited financial resources and a lean work force. Typically, officers who are assigned to a task force are unavailable for other investigative demands.

"Orange County city police departments and the Orange County Sheriff- Coroner Department work cooperatively to develop standardized public information materials, possibly modeled after excellent pamphlets that now exist, for use by all departments (Finding 4)." Judge Horn June 28, 2004 RESPONSE The Anaheim Police Department developed a pamphlet in 2000 addressing identity theft and has dedicated a page to the department's website as well. A copy of our brochures and website is incorporated in the addendum to this response. The brochure contains information on how to prevent identity theft, how to report it and numerous other resources available related to the subject matter. This written material has been made available to the public in English and Spanish and has been shared with numerous local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

"Orange County city police departments and the Orange County Sheriff- Coroner Department adopt a standardized identity-theft crime-reporting form, possibly modeled after forms now in use by several police departments (Finding 5)." RESPONSE The Anaheim Police Department does not currently have a report form dedicated to identity theft. Departments that use such forms have developed them for the purpose of requiring the public complete them. As such, the forms prompt the victim for the information needed. Anaheim Police Department assigns a police officer or trained civilian employee to obtain all necessary information and fill out a police report. We do not require the victim complete the report form. As a result, a fill in the blank style report form is not compatible with our report procedures. Respectfully submitted, Chalita JOHN WELTER CHIEF OF POLICE JW/rc Attachments Curt Pringle, Mayor, City of Anaheim c: David M. Morgan, City Manager, City of Anaheim City Council, City of Anaheim City of Anaheim Police Department Brochures and Website information are available to view at the Orange County Public Law Library 515 North Flower Santa Ana, CA 92703 (Building 32, Civic Center Plaza)