Office of the Charles Middleton*

The Orange County District Attorney's Office is in need of additional staff to effectively investigate and prosecute complex and time consuming identity theft crimes. Agree with Finding - There have been dramatic increases in the number of persons reporting crimes of identity theft during the past three years. Many of these cases remain unsolved at the police agency where the crime was reported, often due to the inability of police agencies to solve these cases. Their investigations are complicated by the fact that the criminal who stole the identity is not always the person who uses the information. The cases often involve multiple police agencies, counties and even states. There has been a significant increase in the number of identity theft prosecutions by the Office of the District Attorney. Increased numbers of prosecutions have occurred at the branch court level as well as in the Economic Crimes Unit. Vertical prosecutions involve rings who systematically steal identities and then exploit them. They are often extremely complex and demand experienced prosecutors and investigators. Vertical prosecution of identity theft cases benefits public safety by preventing future loss and recovering restitution from defendants Unfortunately, the increased identity theft has convicted of identity theft crimes. corresponded to the difficult budget situation faced by the county. Additional attorneys and investigators need to be funded to vertically prosecute these cases. An investment of county resources at this time to provide prosecutors and investigators who specialize in identity theft will pay dividends as we work together in this county to combat identity theft and protect our citizens, and ultimately save money by preventing the losses and recovering some of the losses through restitution orders. At our Office's request, Orange County has made Identity Theft a strategic priority every year since 2000, and again in 2004/2005. . Unfortunately, although identity theft has been repeatedly reaffirmed as a county strategic priority, the County has not allocated funding to specifically address this crime. Several city police agencies need more training by the District Attorney's

Office to properly investigate and prepare identity theft cases for presentation to prosecutors. Disagrees partially with Finding - We agree that complex identity theft investigations require a high level of training for police agency investigators. There has been a larger than average turnover among trained fraud investigators at all county police agencies in the past year that has resulted in more inexperienced investigators handling these difficult cases. We disagree with the finding only in that it does not specify or acknowledge that we have provided training to many investigators individually and provided training through the Orange County Fraud Investigators Association. In September 2002, the California District Attorney's Office conducted a two and one-half day training on identity theft in Orange County open to investigators from county police agencies. The Economic Crimes Unit's Assistant District Attorney was an instructor at that seminar. The San Diego Regional Training Center offered an excellent 40 hour course on identity theft in Long Beach, which was attended by many officers from Orange County police agencies. In addition, we remain available to review and discuss identity theft cases with investigators. Some police agencies may well need training for general investigation detectives so that they better understand how to prepare identity theft cases. We would like to do more training. We hope to hold county wide identity theft training in early 2005 for police officers. The high caseloads of our deputies assigned to the Economic Crimes Unit make it difficult to provide regular and systematic training in identity theft, which is desirable. Fully funding a Felony Charging Unit in the Office of the District Attorney would result in greater hands on training being available at the branch court level where the majority of identity theft cases are filed. However, cuts in that unit made necessary by the budget situation do not make this possible at present.

Identity theft Sub-Task Forces are in place in 5 major population centers in California and arc functioning to facilitate better communication, coordination and cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement and public record-keeping agencies involved in prevention, investigation and prosecution of identity theft. Orange County does not have an Identity Theft Task Force or Sub Task Force. Agree with Finding - Orange County does not have an identity theft task force because the difficult budget situation countywide does not allow police agencies and the Office of the District Attorney to commit officers, investigators and prosecutors to an Orange County task force on a full time basis.

- The Orange County District Attorney's Office, Orange County city police agencies and the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Department provide some form of public information and resource materials outlining how one can prevent identity theft as well as corrective steps to take where identity theft has occurred. Agree with Finding - Many county police agencies, the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the Office of the District Attorney have produced informative booklets on what to do if your identity is stolen as well as prevention of identity theft by safeguarding personal The District Attorney's Office offers these pamphlets in Spanish and information. Vietnamese as well as English. These publications are designed to assist in the recognition of the danger signs of identity theft and provide strategies to avoid victimization. Officers in the field regularly provide these materials to identity theft victims when they report incidents of identity theft. The District Attorney's office, moreover, provides an experienced identity theft investigator who speaks to community groups on this topic on a regular basis. In addition the District Attorney, Tony Ruckauckas, has personally participated in presentations on identity theft. He was one of four guest speakers at a three hour community seminar on identity theft at the University of California, Irvine. This seminar was attended by over 400 people. Mr. Rackauckas more recently addressed the Orange County Bar Association on this topic. The office's brochures were distributed at each of these events as well. RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATIONS – IDENTITY THEFT That the Orange County District Attorney increase the number of