Identity Theft
Problem-Oriented Guides for Police Problem-Specific Guides Series number 25
Center for Problem-Oriented Policing
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Problem-Oriented Guides for Police 
Problem-Specific Guides Series 
Guide No. 25 

Identity Theft


Graeme R. Newman 

This project was supported by cooperative agreement 
#2002CKWX0003 by the Office of Community Oriented Policing 
Services, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions contained herein 
are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the 
official position of the U.S. Department of Justice. 

www.cops.usdoj.gov 

ISBN: 1-932582-35-5 

June 2004 



About the Problem-Specific Guides Series 

The Problem-Specific Guides summarize knowledge about 
how police can reduce the harm caused by specific crime 
and disorder problems. They are guides to prevention and 
to improving the overall response to incidents, not to 
investigating offenses or handling specific incidents. The 
guides are written for police–of whatever rank or 
assignment–who must address the specific problem the 
guides cover. The guides will be most useful to officers 
who 

• 
Understand basic problem-oriented policing 
principles and methods. The guides are not primers in 
problem-oriented policing. They deal only briefly with 
the initial decision to focus on a particular problem, 
methods to analyze the problem, and means to assess 
the results of a problem-oriented policing project. They 
are designed to help police decide how best to analyze 
and address a problem they have already identified. (An 
assessment guide has been produced as a companion to 
this series and the COPS Office has also published an 
introductory guide to problem analysis. For those who 
want to learn more about the principles and methods of 
problem-oriented policing, the assessment and analysis 
guides, along with other recommended readings, are 
listed at the back of this guide.) 
• 
Can look at a problem in depth. Depending on the 
complexity of the problem, you should be prepared to 
spend perhaps weeks, or even months, analyzing and 
responding to it. Carefully studying a problem before 
responding helps you design the right strategy, one that 
is most likely to work in your community. You should 
not blindly adopt the responses others have used; you 
must decide whether they are appropriate to your local 
situation. What is true in one place may not be true 



elsewhere; what works in one place may not work 
everywhere. 

• 
Are willing to consider new ways of doing police 
business. The guides describe responses that other 
police departments have used or that researchers have 
tested. While not all of these responses will be 
appropriate to your particular problem, they should help 
give a broader view of the kinds of things you could do. 
You may think you cannot implement some of these 
responses in your jurisdiction, but perhaps you can. In 
many places, when police have discovered a more 
effective response, they have succeeded in having laws 
and policies changed, improving the response to the 
problem. 
• 
Understand the value and the limits of research 
knowledge. For some types of problems, a lot of useful 
research is available to the police; for other problems, little 
is available. Accordingly, some guides in this series 
summarize existing research whereas other guides illustrate 
the need for more research on that particular problem. 
Regardless, research has not provided definitive answers to 
all the questions you might have about the problem. The 
research may help get you started in designing your own 
responses, but it cannot tell you exactly what to do. This 
will depend greatly on the particular nature of your local 
problem. In the interest of keeping the guides readable, not 
every piece of relevant research has been cited, nor has 
every point been attributed to its sources. To have done so 
would have overwhelmed and distracted the reader. The 
references listed at the end of each guide are those drawn 
on most heavily; they are not a complete bibliography of 
research on the subject. 




• Are willing to work with other community agencies 
to find effective solutions to the problem. The police 
alone cannot implement many of the responses 
discussed in the guides. They must frequently implement 
them in partnership with other responsible private and 
public entities. An effective problem-solver must know 
how to forge genuine partnerships with others and be 
prepared to invest considerable effort in making these 
partnerships work. 

These guides have drawn on research findings and police 
practices in the United States, the United Kingdom, 
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and 
Scandinavia. Even though laws, customs and police 
practices vary from country to country, it is apparent that 
the police everywhere experience common problems. In a 
world that is becoming increasingly interconnected, it is 
important that police be aware of research and successful 
practices beyond the borders of their own countries. 

The COPS Office and the authors encourage you to 
provide feedback on this guide and to report on your own 
agency's experiences dealing with a similar problem. Your 
agency may have effectively addressed a problem using 
responses not considered in these guides and your 
experiences and knowledge could benefit others. This 
information will be used to update the guides. If you wish 
to provide feedback and share your experiences it should 
be sent via e-mail to cops_pubs@usdoj.gov. 


For more information about problem-oriented policing, 
visit the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing online at 
www.popcenter.org or via the COPS website at 
www.cops.usdoj.gov. This website offers free online access to: 

• the Problem-Specific Guides series, 
• the companion Response Guides and Problem-Solving Tools 
series, 
• instructional information about problem-oriented policing 
and related topics, 
• an interactive training exercise, and 
• online access to important police research and practices. 




Acknowledgments 

The Problem-Oriented Guides for Police are very much a 
collaborative effort. While each guide has a primary 
author, other project team members, COPS Office staff 
and anonymous peer reviewers contributed to each guide 
by proposing text, recommending research and offering 
suggestions on matters of format and style. 

The principal project team developing the guide series 
comprised Herman Goldstein, professor emeritus, 
University of Wisconsin Law School; Ronald V. Clarke, 
professor of criminal justice, Rutgers University; John E. 
Eck, associate professor of criminal justice, University of 
Cincinnati; Michael S. Scott, clinical assistant professor, 
University of Wisconsin Law School; Rana Sampson, 
police consultant, San Diego; and Deborah Lamm Weisel, 
director of police research, North Carolina State 
University. 

Karin Schmerler, Rita Varano and Nancy Leach oversaw 
the project for the COPS Office. Suzanne Fregly edited 
the guides. Research for the guides was conducted at the 
Criminal Justice Library at Rutgers University under the 
direction of Phyllis Schultze. 

The project team also wishes to acknowledge the members 
of the San Diego, National City and Savannah police 
departments who provided feedback on the guides' format 
and style in the early stages of the project, as well as the 
line police officers, police executives and researchers who 
peer reviewed each guide. 


Contents  

About the Problem-Specific Guides Series i
Acknowledgments v
The Problem of Identity Theft 1
Related Problems 3
Harms Caused by Identity Theft 4
Sources of Identity Theft Data 5
Factors Contributing to Identity Theft 7
Place 9
Guardianship 9
Personal Guardianship 9
Agency Guardianship 10
How Offenders Steal Identities 11
How Offenders Use Stolen Identities 13
Types of Identity Theft 14
High Commitment, for Financial Gain 15
Opportunistic, for Financial Gain 17
High Commitment, for Concealment 17
Opportunistic, for Concealment 19
Understanding Your Local Problem 21
Asking the Right Questions 21
Incidents 21
Offenders 22
Victims 23
Locations/Times 24
Current Practices 24
Measuring Your Effectiveness 26

Responses to the Problem of Identity Theft 29
General Considerations for an Effective Response Strategy 30
Specific Responses to Identity Theft 32
Prevention 32
Victim Assistance 38
ppendix A: Summary of Responses to Identity Theft 43
Appendix B: Selected Identity Theft Resources 47
Endnotes 49
References 51
About the Author 55
Recommended Readings 57
Other Problem-Oriented Guides for Police 61

The Problem of Identity Theft 

This guide addresses identity theft, describing the problem 
and reviewing factors that increase the risks of it.† It then 
identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your 
local problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem, 
and what is known about them from evaluative research 
and police practice. 

Identity theft is a new crime, facilitated through 
established, underlying crimes such as forgery, 
counterfeiting, check and credit card fraud, computer 
fraud, impersonation, pickpocketing, and even terrorism. 
It became a federal crime in the United States in 1998, 
with the passage of the Identity Theft Assumption and 
Deterrence Act.1 This act identifies offenders as anyone 
who 

…knowingly transfers or uses, without lawful 
authority, any name or number that may be 
used, alone or in conjunction with any other 
information, to identify a specific individual 
with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any 
unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of 
Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under 
any applicable State or local law. 

A significant feature of identity theft is the offender's 
repeated victimization of a single person. This may 
include repeatedly using a stolen credit card, taking over a 
card account, or using stolen personal information to open 
new accounts.†† 


† The term identity fraud is 
sometimes used to include the whole 
range of identity theft related crimes 
(Economic Crime Institute 2003). 

†† A victimization survey 
conducted by the Federal Trade 
Commission (FTC) found that 16 
percent of victims whose credit 
cards were misused said the people 
responsible had also tried to "take 
over" the accounts by doing such 
things as changing the billing 
address or adding themselves to the 
card as an authorized user (Federal 
Trade Commission 2003a). 


 

Congressional hearings on identity theft in the 1990s 
revealed that police generally did not regard those whose 
identities had been stolen as the true victims, since the 
credit card companies took the financial loss. In addition, 
the companies typically did not report their losses to local 
police (or to anyone else, for that matter). Studies also 
showed that victims rarely reported the loss or theft of a 
card to the police, since they believed that the card 
company would cover the loss. However, because the 
repeated use of a victim's identity caused serious 
disruption and emotional damage, more victims began to 
report the offense. 

It is likely that your initial exposure to identity theft will 
be the request of a victim for a police report about the 
incident. Credit-reporting agencies now require that 
victims do so as part of the an "identity theft affidavit." 
Until recently, victims had a hard time getting such reports 
from the police. However, in response to growing media 
coverage and congressional testimony concerning identity 
theft, the International Association of Chiefs of Police 
(IACP) adopted a resolution in 2000 urging all police 
departments to provide incident reports and other 
assistance to identity theft victims.† It is also possible that 
people you have stopped or questioned have given you a 
fake ID–or a legitimate ID acquired with a false or forged 
document. 

† "WHEREAS, reports of identity 
theft to local law enforcement 
agencies are often handled with the 
response 'please contact your credit 
card company,' and often no official 
report is created or maintained, 
causing great difficulty in accounting 
for and tracing these crimes, and 
leaving the public with the 
impression their local police 
department does not care…. 
RESOLVED, that the International 
Association of Chiefs of Police calls 
upon all law enforcement agencies in 
the United States to take more 
positive actions in recording all 
incidents of identity theft and 
referring the victims to the Federal 
Trade Commission…" (International 
Association of Chiefs of Police 
2000).

It is difficult, though not impossible, for local police to 
influence some important factors that contribute to 
identity theft. These concern: 


• the ways that businesses and government agencies 
manage clients' personal information (for example, the 
procedures your motor vehicle department uses to 
authenticate driver's license applications); and  
• the policies and practices of financial institutions in 
dealing with fraud (for example, the ease with which 
they provide applicants with credit cards and 
convenience checks). 


That said, this guide will help you determine what you can 
do to prevent identity theft and help victims in your 
jurisdiction. 

Related Problems 

The following problems are closely related to identity 
theft, but not specifically addressed in this guide: 

• Financial crimes against the elderly.† 
† See the POP Guide on Financial
Crimes Against the Elderly. 

• Various telemarketing and Internet scams.22 
• Theft of autos and auto parts aided by fraudulent 
documentation. As the effectiveness of car security has 
increased in recent years, making cars more difficult to 
steal, offenders have exploited weaknesses in 
documentation systems that link cars to their owners, 
including registration and owner's certificates, license 
plates, and vehicle identification numbers.3 
• Thefts from autos. Offenders commonly target wallets 
and purses, and dispose of their contents for profit. 
• Burglary. Burglaries of residences or businesses may 
reward offenders with a wide range of personal and 
business records that can be converted into loans or 
bank accounts, or provide access to existing accounts. 



• 
Pickpocketing. Even if there is no credit card in a 
wallet, or even if the victim notifies the credit card 
issuer that a card has been stolen, the offender can use 
the victim's driver's license or other personal 
information to obtain a new card, or even establish 
credit with banks. Health insurance cards commonly list 
the holder's social security number as an identifier. 
• 
Street robbery. Personal information and credit cards 
are an important target of muggers, who may sell such 
information and cards on the street. 
• 
Counterfeiting and forgery. Offenders use the latest 
technologies to reproduce credit cards, checks, driver's 
licenses, passports, and other means of identification. 
• 
Trafficking in human beings. Studies have found that 
stolen identities and false documentation are essential 
to successful international trafficking in prostitution 
and other illegal labor markets.4 


Harms Caused by Identity Theft 

• 
The FTC states that nearly 5 percent of respondents to 
its 2003 survey reported that they had been victims of 
identity theft in the past year.5 This amounts to almost 
15 million victims a year in the United States. 
• 
The FTC reports that identity theft is the major subject 
of consumer complaints it receives–42 percent of all 
those received in 2003. Such complaints numbered 
214,905, up 33 percent from the previous year, 
although the FTC does not believe this is a true 
measure of the increase in identity theft.6 
• 
Identity theft victims experience long-term and well-
documented pain and suffering,7 such as harassment 
from debt collectors, banking problems, loan rejection, 
utility cutoffs, and even arrest for the identity thief's 
other crimes. In fact, since federal and state laws often 
protect victims against financial loss resulting from 




identity theft, it is the disruption of their lives and the 
psychological damage suffered that are probably the 
worst aspects of their victimization. Victims spend, on 
average, 600 hours trying to clear damaged credit or 
even criminal records caused by the thief.8 

• 
People fear having their identities stolen. In a recent 
poll, only one fear topped respondents' fear of having 
personal data stolen: that of another attack like the one 
on the World Trade Center.9 
• 
The financial losses to consumers and businesses are 
enormous. The U.S. Secret Service estimated in 1997 
that of the 9,455 cases investigated, consumers lost 
more than $745 million due to identity theft.10 The 2003 
FTC survey found that the total annual cost of identity 
theft to its victims was about $5 billion. Businesses, 
including financial institutions, lost another $47 billion 
in identity theft-related costs.11 
• 
The cost to law enforcement ranges from $15,000 to 
$25,000 to investigate each case.12 


Sources of Identity Theft Data 

Data sources vary in quality and often provide conflicting 
or different estimates, especially concerning the extent and 
cost of identity theft. A recent problem is the tendency of 
businesses to exaggerate the threat of identity theft to sell 
products tailored to prevent it, such as insurance or 
software. Several sources supply data on identity theft: 

• Government sources. The FTC was assigned the 
responsibility of collecting data as a result of the 
Identity Theft Act of 1998. Other data sources include 
the U.S. General Accounting Office, Social Security 
Administration, Postal Service, Department of 
Homeland Security, FBI, Secret Service, Sentencing 


Commission, and congressional hearings on identity 
theft and fraud. 

• Popular and trade media reports. These provide mostly 
anecdotal information and reinterpret reports from 
government sources. 
• Credit reporting agencies. 


The FTC's 2003 victimization survey provides the most 
reliable information to date.13 


Factors Contributing to Identity Theft 


Understanding the factors that contribute to your problem 
will help you frame your own local analysis questions,  
determine good effectiveness measures, recognize key 
intervention points, and select appropriate responses. There 
are few scientific studies on identity theft victims,  
offenders, or incidents, though there are studies on some 
identity theft-related crimes such as check and credit card 
fraud.† 

† See the POP Guide on Check and
Card Fraud. 

Regarding victims, the most important findings concern the 
time taken to discover the theft: 

• The longer it takes to discover the theft, the greater the 
victim's loss and suffering.14 
• Low-income, less-educated victims take longer to 
discover or report the crime, resulting in greater 
suffering, especially from harassment by debt collectors, 
utility cutoffs, and banking problems.15 


Victim characteristics are probably not related to identity 
theft vulnerability, though more research is needed in this 
area. The average age of victims is 42. They most often live 
in a large metropolitan area, and typically don't notice the 
crime for 14 months. Evidence suggests that seniors are 
less victimized by identity theft than the rest of the 
population, though they can be targeted in specific financial 
scams that may or may not involve identity theft.†† African 
Americans may suffer more from non-credit card identity 
theft, especially theft of telephone and other utility 
services, and check fraud.16 

†† See the POP Guide on Financial 
Crimes Against the Elderly.




Regarding offenders, data from the above sources suggest 
they are attracted to identity theft for two important 
reasons: 

• 
It is easy to commit because of the ready availability of 
personal information on the Internet, or contained in 
business files accessible to dishonest employees or 
burglars. Many people are not vigilant in protecting 
their personal information, and businesses are rarely 
held accountable for customer information accessed by 
those unauthorized to do so. Opportunities are legion. 
There are even websites that offer guides on how to 
create alternative IDs and to access other people's 
personal identifying information.† 

† You can find out anyone's social 
security number for a small fee. Just 
visit 
http://www.docusearch.com/overtu 
re_ssn.html, or check out 
Undercover Press at 
http://www.aaffordable.com/best-
sellers.html, which promotes itself 
as the "no questions asked source 
for Birth certificates, social security 
cards, city ID's, press cards, 
Diplomas, credentials of almost any 
kind including badges and police 
ID's." 

• 
Victims don't typically discover the crime until some 
time after it has occurred–in some cases, years. If a 
retailer has lax security, and an offender gets away with 
using a stolen credit card, the legitimate cardholder may 
not realize it until receiving the next card statement. 


Familiarity between victim and offender provides 
opportunities for identity theft because of the availability 
of personal information among relatives, coworkers, and 
others. According to the 1999-2001 FTC complaint files 
(see Figure 1), close to 11 percent of the complainants 
knew the offender. The FTC's 2003 survey found that 86 
percent of victims had no relationship with the thief.17 
However, other sources claim closer to 60 percent of 
victims knew or had some information about the 
offender.18 

Offenders' opportunities to commit identity theft may be 
classified under two broad categories: place and guardianship. 
The trouble is that committed offenders know very well 
where to find personal information, and the guardianship 
is not too effective. 


Fig. 1. Methods of obtaining personal information 

Place 

Offenders can generally find people's personal information 
in three places: 

• in wallets or purses; 
• in homes, cars, or other designated "safe" places (e.g., a 
safe deposit box, gym locker, office drawer); and 
• at businesses or institutions that maintain customer, 
employee, patient, or student records. 


Guardianship 

Personal Guardianship 

People are generally casual about protecting their personal 
information, even though they indicate in opinion polls 
that they are very concerned about doing so.19 



• 
People carry personal information on them, which 
offenders may obtain via pickpocketing, mugging, or, if 
it is lost, simply finding it. People also leave personal 
information in cars or other places where experienced 
thieves know to look. 
• 
Burglars can get information from victims' homes, and 
"Internet burglars," or hackers, can obtain personal 
identifying data from people's home computers. 
• 
People's trash can serve as another source of 
information. People often throw away credit card 
statements, bank statements, and other documents 
containing personal information. Offenders may go 
through people's trash looking for such information.† 

† In a study of 400 households in 
Nottingham, England, 40 percent of 
trashcans contained documents 
listing full credit and debit card 
numbers, as well as names, 
addresses, and expiration dates 
(Davis 2002). 

• 
People routinely give out personal information during 
business transactions, such as in shops and restaurants. 
Businesses that fail to use modern technology to 
protect customers' personal information create 
abundant opportunities for dishonest employees to 
steal customers' identities. 


Agency Guardianship 

There is an enormous amount of personal information 
available, and it is incredibly easy to obtain. Government 
agencies and businesses keep computerized records of 
their clients. They may sell or freely provide that 
information to other organizations.†† Often, all that is 
needed is one form of identification, such as a driver's 
license, and an offender can obtain the victim's mother's 
maiden name, social security number, etc.††† Many identity 
theft crimes are committed by employees of organizations 
that maintain client databases. For example, a widely 
publicized Detroit case involved an identity theft ring in 
which employees of a major credit card company stole 


†† U.S. residents do not own 
personal information contained in 
agency databases, so they have little 
control over how that information is 
used. Recent "opt-out" laws allow 
people to prevent their information 
from being provided to others, but 
these laws are not widely publicized. 

††† Social security numbers are not 
so secure. A recent study estimated 
that 4.2 million people have 
managed to acquire alternative 
numbers (Finch 2003). 





customer information.20 Procedures for authenticating 
individual identities are often inadequate. Establishing a 
given person's "true identity" is a complex task. It requires 
the careful assessment of 

• the person's biological identity (physical features, DNA, 
fingerprints, etc.); 
• the person's historical identity (date of birth, marriage, 
etc.); and 
• the link between those identities.21 


Many agencies and businesses make only a cursory 
attempt–if any–to assess these. 

How Offenders Steal Identities 

The notoriety of identity theft rose with media coverage 
of the dangers of buying and selling on the Internet.† 
However, the ways offenders steal identities are decidedly 
low-tech. Computer hackers aren't necessarily geniuses; 
sometimes they simply obtain a password by trickery or 
from a dishonest insider. Some methods are more popular 
than others, as is clear from Figure 1, which is based on 
data collected by the FTC and reported by the General 
Accounting Office. In general, these data indicate that 
offenders make the most of the easiest available 
opportunities: 

• They steal wallets or purses from shopping bags, from 
cars, or by pickpocketing. 
• They steal mail, by several means. They may simply take 
it from insecure mailboxes, submit a false change-of-
address form to the post office to direct someone's 
mail to themselves, or collude with a postal employee 
to steal mail that contains personal information.  


† Available data indicate that 
Internet-related identity theft 
constitutes a small proportion of all 
identity theft, probably less than 20 
percent. However, there are many 
definitional problems here. For 
example, just one act of hacking 
into a database may reap thousands 
of credit card numbers and other 
personal data. These are then used 
to commit thousands of identity 
thefts offline. So it is wise to reserve 
judgment on this issue for now. 


Mail that is useful to offenders includes preapproved credit 
card applications, energy or telephone bills, bank or 
credit card statements, and convenience checks. 

• They rummage through residential trashcans or through 
business dumpsters ("dumpster diving"). 
• They obtain people's credit reports by posing as 
someone who is legally permitted to do so, such as a 
landlord or employer. 
• They collude with or bribe employees of businesses, 
government agencies, or service organizations, such as 
hospitals and HMOs, to obtain personnel or client 
records, or if they are employees, they access the 
information themselves. 
• They break into homes to find personal information on 
paper or on personal computers. 
• They hack into corporate computers and steal customer 
and employee databases, then sell them on the black 
market or extort money from the database owners for 
their return. 
• They call credit card issuers and change the billing 
address for an account. The offender immediately runs 
up charges on the account, knowing that the victim will 
not receive the bill for some time, if ever. 
• They buy identities on the street for the going rate 
(about $25), or buy credit cards that may be either 
counterfeit or stolen. 
• They buy counterfeit documents such as birth 
certificates, visas, or passports. In 2001, the U.S. 
Immigration and Naturalization Service intercepted 
over 100,000 fraudulent passports, visas, alien 
registration cards, and entry permits. 
• They buy false or counterfeit IDs on the Internet for as 
little as $50. 




• 
They counterfeit checks and credit or debit cards, using 
another person's name. All the technology for 
reproducing plastic cards, including their holograms 
and magnetic strips, can be bought on the Internet. 
• 
They steal PINS and user IDs, using software available 
on the Internet; trick Internet users into giving their 
passwords and other personal information; or watch 
users punch in their PINs on telephones or at ATMs. 
• 
They use a single stolen ID to obtain legitimate IDs 
they can use for a wide variety of additional frauds. 
• 
They gain entry into ID-issuing agencies, such as motor 
vehicle departments, by using bribery or extortion, or 
posing as employees. 


How Offenders Use Stolen Identities 

Offenders use victims' personal information in countless 
ways. Some of the most common examples follow: 

• 
They open a new credit card account using the victim's 
name. All this requires, apart from the applicant's 
address, is usually a few pieces of information: the 
victim's mother's maiden name, the victim's birth date, 
and, sometimes, the victim's social security number. 
• 
They open a landline or cell phone account in the 
victim's name. 
• 
They open a bank account in the victim's name. They 
often open multiple accounts in multiple places, and 
write bad checks on each. 
• 
They file for bankruptcy under the victim's name, to 
avoid paying their own debts or to avoid eviction. 
• 
They steal the victim's identity, take over his or her 
insurance policies, and make false claims for "pain and 
suffering" suffered from auto accidents.22 




• 
They take out auto loans or mortgages under the 
victim's name and residence. 
• 
They submit fraudulent tax returns using the victim's 
identity, and collect the refunds. 
• 
They submit applications for social security using 
others' identities (often those of people who have 
died), and receive social security payments. 


Types of Identity Theft 

Classifying identity theft into types is difficult, as it 
involves a wide variety of crimes and related problems. 
However, the acknowledged motives for identity theft can 
be used to construct a simple typology. Research indicates 
that the two dominant motives for identity theft are 
financial gain and concealment (either of true identity or 
of a crime).† These motives are mediated by the 
offenders' level of commitment to the task and the extent 
to which offenders are simply opportunists taking 
advantage of the moment. 

† The FTC survey reported that 15 
percent of ID theft victims in the 
past five years had their personal 
information misused in nonfinancial 
ways. The most common such 
misuse was for the offender to give 
the victim's name and 
identifying information when 
stopped by law enforcement or 
charged with a crime (Federal Trade 
Commission 2003a). 

Professionals who seek out targets and create their own 
opportunities–usually in gangs–have a high level of 
commitment. A lot of planning and organization is 
involved. Some lone offenders also display considerable 
commitment and planning, especially in regard to 
concealing personal history. Offenders with low 
commitment take advantage of opportunities in which ID 
theft appears to solve an immediate problem; thus their 
identity thefts are "opportunistic." 



As seen in Table 1, there are four types of identity theft, 
based on the combinations of commitment and motive. 
Of course, any single case could reflect aspects of more 
than one type. 

Financial gain Concealment 
High commitment 
Organized. A fraud ring systematically Organized. Terrorists obtain false 
(lots of planning) steals personal information and uses it to visas and passports to avoid being 
generate bank accounts, obtain credit traced after committing terrorist 
cards, etc. (See box below.) acts. † 
Individual. The offender sets up a look-Individual. The offender assumes 
alike Internet website for a major 
company; spams consumers, luring them 
to the site by saying their account 
information is needed to clear up a 
another's name to cover up past 
crimes and avoid capture over 
many years. 
serious problem; steals the 
personal/financial information the 
consumer provides; and uses it to 
commit identity theft. 
Opportunistic An apartment manager uses personal The offender uses another's name 
(low commitment) information from rental applications to and ID when stopped or arrested 
open credit card accounts. by police. 

Table 1 
The Four Types of Identity Theft 

High Commitment, for Financial Gain 

Organized. In this type of identity theft, a group or gang 
carefully plans and orchestrates the crimes. Indeed, while it 
is widely believed that committing identity theft is easy 
because of the numerous opportunities described above, 
carrying out a truly successful identity theft requires 
considerable organization and preparation: 

• 
searching for an easy target, 
• 
locating sources of personal information for that 
target, 


† An Algerian national facing U.S. 
charges of identity theft allegedly 
stole the identities of 21 members 
of a Cambridge, Mass., health club 
and transferred the identities to one 
of the people convicted in the failed 
1999 plot to bomb Los Angeles 
International Airport (Willox 2002). 


• obtaining the necessary documents (legal or 
counterfeit) to establish legitimacy, 

• 
choosing how to use the identity to obtain money, 
• 
convincing officials that one is the person named in 
identity documents, and 
• 
anticipating how long one can exploit the identity 
before the victim discovers the losses. 


Research has shown that organized criminal gangs in 
Southeast Asia manufacture plastic cards using stolen 
identities. These are then marketed on the street in large 

U.S. and European cities. Street fraudsters tend to 
specialize in particular types of card fraud. They use 
highly sophisticated techniques to avoid detection either 
when using the card in a retail store or when converting 
purchased goods into cash. They tend to work in small 
gangs, deal in high volume, and operate in high-population 
areas, usually 50 miles or more away from where they live. 

A Classic Case of Organized Identity Theft for Financial Gain 
Jane Sprayberry handed over her driver's license to an American 
Express customer service representative who had asked for it in 
order to replace Jane's lost credit card. True to the Amex promise, 
she received the replacement card without delay. The only trouble 
was that the recipient was not the real Jane Sprayberry. The driver's 
license had her name on it, but the photograph was not of her. In no 
time, the imposter ran up a big bill on high-priced jewelry, clothing, 
and appliances. Just a week before, Jane's husband's bank account had 
been emptied and his credit card cloned. A coincidence? Not at all. A 
ring of fraudsters in Detroit had gotten jobs at large businesses and 
had collected reams of personal information: personnel records, credit 
records, old rental-car agreements. Those offenders who were eventually 
caught had bags and books full of such records–records they had used 
over several years. They had run up an average of $18,000 in credit 
card charges per victim. And they had sold identities on the street 
for around $25 each. It took the real Jane Sprayberry and her husband 
more than six months to clean up the mess. 


Individual. Individuals may become strongly committed 
to the crime once they discover, after casually using 
someone's identity, how easy it is to get away with doing 
so. For example, someone with a drug habit may regularly 
buy stolen credit cards on the street (stolen cards are 
cheaper if others have used them), to raise money to buy 
drugs. 

Opportunistic, for Financial Gain 

The second type of identity theft occurs when the 
offender takes advantage of the access he or she has to 
the personal information of friends, family, or others. 
Examples include the following: 

• 
A college student uses his or her roommate's personal 
information to apply for a preapproved credit card, 
which comes in the mail to which they both have 
access. 
• 
A restaurant worker processes a customer's credit card 
payment and notices that the complete card number is 
printed out on the receipt, along with the expiration 
date. The worker copies the information and later 
makes several large purchases over the Internet, where 
he or she does not need to show the card or verify his 
or her identity. 


High Commitment, for Concealment 

Organized. Terrorism is the most recently cited instance 
of organized groups' stealing identities to conceal illegal 
activities, and to make tracking their true identities much 
more difficult after they've committed crimes. Authorities 
claim that all 19 of the September 11 terrorists were 


involved in identity theft in some way.24 This resulted in 
the mistaken arrest of people whose identities had been 
stolen. 

Individual. Covering up past crimes is a major reason for 
individuals to steal or assume another identity. Kathleen 
Soliah, wanted for various bombings and attempted 
murder in relation to her activities in the Symblonese 
Liberation Front in the late 1960s, assumed the identity of 
Sara Jones Olson (a common Scandinavian surname in 
Minnesota). She evaded capture for 23 years, and in the 
meantime became a doctor's wife, mother of three, 
community volunteer, veteran of charity work in Africa, 
and practicing Methodist living in an upscale 
neighborhood in St. Paul, Minn. 

Image of identity theft awareness poster



Opportunistic, for Concealment 

The most common type of opportunistic identity theft for 
concealment occurs when an offender gives the name of 
an acquaintance, friend, or family member when stopped, 
questioned, or arrested by police. Examples include the 
following: 

• 
Jefferey Williams was jailed for 10 days without bail on 
a warrant for drug possession and resisting arrest. The 
Orange County (Fla.) Sheriff's Department had issued 
the warrant in Orlando. Williams insisted that he was 
not the person the police were looking for. The trouble 
was that Florida authorities were seeking a relative of 
Williams who had passed himself off as Jefferey, giving 
Jefferey's name, birth date, and old home address.25 
• 
Lisa Sims (alias Elisa McNabney) assumed the name of 
her cellmate from a prior prison term to cover up her 
extensive criminal past and avoid arrest on suspicion of 
murdering her husband. Investigation revealed that she 
had multiple social security numbers and other forms 
of identity.26 



Understanding Your Local Problem 


The information provided above is only a generalized 
description of identity theft. You must combine the basic 
facts with a more specific understanding of your local 
problem. Analyzing the local problem carefully will help  
 you design a more effective response strategy. 


Asking the Right Questions 

The following are some critical questions you should ask 
in analyzing your particular problem of identity theft, even 
if the answers are not always readily available. Your 
answers to these and other questions will help you choose 
the most appropriate set of responses later on. In some 
cases, the questions you should ask will be similar to those 
recommended regarding check and credit card fraud. If 
you find that such fraud figures heavily in the identity 
thefts you confront, you should also consult Check and 
Card Fraud, Guide No. 21 in this series. 

Incidents 

• 
Have checks, cards, or other forms of identity been 
targeted in crimes such as burglaries of homes and 
offices, pickpocketing in shopping malls, muggings, and 
thefts from cars?† 

† A study issued by the U.S. 
Sentencing Commission that
analyzed data on identity theft
related cases from 1998 found that
fewer than 10 types of ID were
stolen or used, the most common 
being credit cards, driver's licenses,
social security numbers, birth 
certificates, checks, and alien 
registration cards. The majority of 
the cases involved a single ID use 
(U.S. Sentencing Commission 1999). 


• 
What do reported cases of identity fraud usually entail: 
check or card fraud, Internet fraud, forged documents, 
false drivers' licenses, theft from cars? 
• 
Who typically reports the crimes: individual victims, 
retailers, banks, or credit card issuers? 





• 
Is online fraud (from credit card sales) a problem in 
your area? Such fraud may become apparent when 
offenders order online but arrange to pick up 
merchandise at the store. Do merchants report any 
such instances? 
• 
Are there any cases of parcels stolen or "lost" during 
delivery of items ordered online? 
• 
Are there known fencing operations in or near your 
area? If so, what kinds of items are most commonly 
fenced, and are they traceable to any local stores? Do 
new items frequently appear in pawnshops? 
• 
Are there increases in incidents such as car 
repossessions or collection agency activities? 
• 
What is the local incidence of lost mail, mail diversions, 
and false filings of changes of address with the post 
office? 
• 
If your jurisdiction is near a national border or entry 
point, what data are available on attempts at illegal 
entry using stolen or false documents?† 





Offenders 

• 
Do identity thieves work alone, or in groups? How 
many work alone? How many work with others? How 
and where do they get together? How do they offend 
together? Why do they offend together? 
• 
What are offenders' demographic characteristics, such 
as age and gender? Is there an ethnic component? 
• 
Where do they live, work, or hang out? 
• 
Do they know, or have they studied, their victims? 
• 
How active are they? Do particular offenders account 
for a few identity thefts, or for many? Do they 
specialize in one particular method of committing 
identity theft? 



Understanding Your Local Problem 

• 
What, specifically, motivates them? Do they need quick 
cash to party or to support a family? Do they have any 
expensive addictions? Are they recently jobless, or are 
they long-term offenders? 
• 
Do they show evidence of planning their crimes, or do 
they take advantage of easy opportunities? 
• 
What special skills and techniques do they use to 
commit their crimes? 


Victims 

• 
How do victims respond to identity theft? 
• 
Are particular people repeatedly victimized? If so, why? 
• 
What do victims expect when they contact the police? 
How long do they wait before reporting the crime to 
the police? 
• 
How long does it take for victims to discover that their 
identity has been stolen? Do they also report the theft 
to their credit card issuer and bank? 
• 
How do businesses respond to their victimization? Do 
they routinely report check and card fraud to the 
police? (Some may be unwilling to do so for fear that 
police attention will drive business away, or, in the case 
of card fraud, because they do not have to bear the 
loss.) What kinds of businesses report identity fraud: 
small family stores, large retail chains, supermarkets, 
local or regional banks, etc.? Why do they report it? 
• 
What are merchant attitudes regarding police 
involvement in dealing with identity theft? 
• 
What procedures do merchants have for detecting or 
preventing identity theft? 
• 
Are particular businesses repeatedly victimized? If so, 
why? (They may have inadequate security procedures in 
place.) 
• 
Have any local businesses reported theft or loss of 
company records? 



Locations/Times 

• 
Do any of the crimes related to identity theft–wallet 
thefts, check and card fraud, account takeovers, use of 
fake driver's licenses–occur in a specific area, on a 
particular day, and/or at a particular time? 
• 
Can cases of identity theft be traced back to particular 
supermarkets, electronics stores, retail chains, 
restaurants, online stores, or even car dealerships? 
• 
Do muggings or thefts from cars that entail theft of 
credit cards and other personal documents occur in 
neighborhoods where drug dealing is common? 
• 
Does fraud occur at checkout in local stores? 
• 
Do thieves use methods that require them to travel to 
and from specific places? (Some identity thieves, once 
they have the necessary information, may open several 
bank accounts in a short period of time, write several 
large checks, then quickly leave the area). 
• 
Do thieves use the telephone or Internet to convert 
their stolen identities into cash? Do they call stores 
from home, or from public phones? Do they access 
online stores from home computers, or from those 
available in public places (e.g., college campuses, public 
libraries, Internet cafes)? 


Current Practices 

• 
What databases are available to help you prevent or 
reduce identity theft? You may have access to a number 
of useful databases, or you may need to construct your 
own–given, of course, the resources to do it: 


 
a. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse recommends 
establishing a central database of lost or stolen 
driver's licenses, so that local police officers can 
check IDs against it. While this may seem obvious, 
information-sharing among agencies continues to 
be difficult. If your state does not already have 
such a database, clearly it will require considerable 
collaboration with law enforcement bodies and 
state agencies to create one. 
b. The FTC's Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse is 
the central national repository of identity theft 
complaints. All local, state, and federal law 
enforcement officers can have free Internet access 
to this secure database. After your organization 
signs a confidentiality agreement with the FTC, 
you will be provided with a user ID and password. 
You can search the database for complaints 
relating to investigations you are working on, or 
find clusters of reports detailing suspicious activity 
regarding locations or people in your community. 
You can also receive e-mail notifications each time 
a complaint that relates to your interests hits the 
database. To learn more about Consumer Sentinel, 
go to http://www.ftc.gov/sentinel/. To join 
Consumer Sentinel, go to 
http://www.ftc.gov/sentinel/cs_signup.pdf. 
c. Credit-issuing and reporting companies such as 
Visa and MasterCard also maintain databases of 
lost or stolen cards. You should establish ways of 
accessing these databases, which will require 
working with local banks and businesses with ties 
to those companies. 


• 
Does your crime analyst (if your department has one) 
track crimes that relate to and facilitate identity theft? 
When victims report burglaries or thefts, tracking the 
use of stolen identity related items such as credit cards 
may provide clues concerning offenders' activities, such 
as which stores prefer. You may then work with the 
stores to improve security, if it is lax, and also to 
identify the thieves. 
• 
Does your department have an established procedure 
for verifying and recording the identities offenders give 
when they are stopped, questioned, or arrested? Do 
officers receive training in ID authentication? 
• 
Does your department have a crime reporting system 
that facilitates making a police report for identity theft 
or fraud? 
• 
How do local agencies respond to ID theft? Do they 
have established reporting procedures? 


Measuring Your Effectiveness 

Measurement allows you to determine to what degree your 
efforts have succeeded, and suggests how you might 
modify your responses if they are not producing the 
intended results. You should take measures of your 
problem before you implement responses, to determine how 
serious the problem is, and after you implement them, to 
determine whether they have been effective. All measures 
should be taken in both the target area and the 
surrounding area. (For more detailed guidance on 
measuring effectiveness, see the companion guide to this 
series, Assessing Responses to Problems: An Introductory Guide 
for Police Problem-Solvers.) 



The following are potentially useful measures of the 
effectiveness of responses to identity theft: 

• 
Increases in incident reports (if you have raised 
awareness of identity theft in your community, 
including in your police department). 
• 
Decreases in incident reports and fewer repeat † See the POP Guide on Robbery 
offenders (if your prevention efforts have been at Automated Teller Machines. 
effective). 
• 
Increases in favorable media coverage (resulting from 
your efforts to raise awareness and sensitivity to the 
crime, and to publicize your department's responses to 
it). 
• 
Increases in interdepartmental collaborations (resulting 
from your efforts to coordinate prevention and 
enforcement activities among relevant government 
agencies). 
• 
Decreases in retail losses attributed to identity theft, 
especially check and card fraud. Retailers may use the 
number of transactions, or the total amount of sales, as 
the base against which they compute losses. 
• 
Increases in measures businesses take to protect 
employee and client records and privacy (resulting from 
your work with them to increase security). 
• 
Differences in reported frauds between stores or banks 
where you focus your activities and those where you do 
not (keeping in mind that changes may be due to other 
factors, and that reported crime does not always reflect 
actual crime). 
• 
Reductions in related crimes such as burglaries, thefts 
from cars, or robberies at ATMs,† where credit cards, 
bankcards, or other forms of identity may be prime 
targets (keeping in mind that changes may be due to 
other factors related to those crimes). 



• 
Increases in related crimes when fraudsters' efforts are 
thwarted and they shift to easier targets (displacement). 
One study has suggested that acquisitive crime may 
increase as credit card fraud decreases.27 Other studies 
have found that fraudsters tend not to switch easily 
between different types of credit card fraud,28 though 
they are resourceful in shifting between different types 
of check fraud, or at least in inventing new ways to 
commit it.29 
• 
Reductions in the number of new products fenced or 
available in pawnshops. 



Responses to the Problem of Identity Theft 

Your analysis of your local problem should give you a 
better understanding of the factors contributing to it. 
Once you have analyzed your local problem and 
established a baseline for measuring effectiveness, you 
should consider possible responses to address the 
problem. As noted at the beginning of this guide, some of 
the risk factors relating to identity theft may lie beyond the 
immediate influence of local police, or they may appear to 
lie beyond the usual scope of local police responsibility. 
These include: 

• 
preventive measures businesses should take to 
safeguard their records from employee misuse or from 
outside intrusion; 
• 
marketing or authentication practices of credit card or 
retail companies that make it easier for identity thieves 
to open card accounts or make fraudulent purchases; 
• 
preventive measures government agencies should take 
to safeguard their records from employee misuse or 
from outside intrusion; 
• 
technologies that make counterfeiting cards, checks, or 
other forms of identity easier for offenders; 
• 
preventive measures people should take to safeguard 
their personal information; 
• opportunities the Internet provides for purchase or 
theft of personal information; and 


• 
actions credit-reporting agencies take in response to 
victims' requests for help in repairing their credit 
records. 



† See the POP Guide on Check and Card 
Fraud. 

However, studies of successful interventions to reduce or 
prevent check and credit card fraud have shown that there 
are things local police can do to impact some of the above 
factors. It requires the development of various 
partnerships with local and state government agencies and 
with businesses.† 

The following response strategies provide a foundation of 
ideas for addressing your particular problem. These 
strategies are drawn from a variety of research studies and 
police reports. Several of these strategies may apply to 
your community's problem. It is critical that you tailor 
responses to local circumstances, and that you can justify 
each response based on reliable analysis. In most cases, an 
effective strategy will involve implementing several 
different responses. Law enforcement responses alone are 
seldom effective in reducing or solving the problem. Do 
not limit yourself to considering what police can do: give 
careful consideration to who else in your community 
shares responsibility for the problem and can help police 
better respond to it. In the case of identity theft, there are 
clear implications for businesses, other government 
agencies, and consumer advocacy groups. 

General Considerations for an Effective Response 
Strategy 

As we have seen, identity theft is a complex crime, 
composed of many sub-crimes and related to many other 
problems. Thus, identity theft crimes fall under the 
authority of many different agencies, including the local 
police, Secret Service, Postal Inspection Service, FBI, 
Homeland Security, local government offices, and motor 
vehicle departments, to name just a few. Regional and state 
law enforcement agencies may have established 


Responses to the Problem of Identity Theft 

multiagency task forces to combat identity fraud. For 
example, the Financial Crimes Task Force of Southwestern 
Pennsylvania consists of local law enforcement, Secret 
Service agents, and postal inspectors. At a minimum, 
multiagency task forces should include motor vehicle 
departments and local and state government agencies that 
keep public records. These multiagency task forces fulfill 
an important need because, at present, the Secret Service, 
which has primary responsibility for investigating identity 
theft, does not accept cases unless there is a financial loss 
of over $200,000 and a multistate fraud ring is involved. 
This leaves many victims in the lurch. 

Thus, it will be important for you to work with local 
agencies to coordinate responses, so that you can 
participate more fully in designing and implementing 
preventive strategies. In addition, if local police have the 
first official contact with the victim, they can be an 
important investigative resource. FTC data indicate that 
the victim often knows who the offender is, or has 
significant amounts of information about the offender. In 
2003, 62 percent of the complaints in the FTC identity 
theft database contained information about the offender. 

However, because of the complexity–and expense–of 
developing multiagency task forces, your initial efforts 
should focus on local factors that will help reduce or 
prevent identity theft and mitigate the harm done to 
victims. Thus, the responses listed below are divided into 
two sections: 

• 
Prevention: What to do to prevent identity theft from 
occurring in your jurisdiction. 
• 
Victim assistance: How to respond to victims who 
come to you for help. 



† The costs to the victim–in terms 
of both out-of-pocket expense and 
time spent resolving problems–are 
substantially smaller if the misuse 
is discovered quickly. No out-of-
pocket expenses were incurred by 
67 percent of those who 
discovered misuse of their 
personal information within five 
months (Federal Trade 
Commission 2003b). 

It should be emphasized that these two stages are closely 
related, and that collecting information in one stage helps 
in addressing the other. For example, obtaining 
information in the victim assistance stage will help you 
develop prevention strategies.† 

Finally, since identity theft occurs in conjunction with a 
variety of other crimes, and given the limited resources 
that may be available to you, it may not be feasible to 
address all such crimes at once. It may be more effective 
to be on the lookout for rashes of specific types of 
identity theft, such as credit card fraud or immigration 
fraud (if your jurisdiction is near an entry point). Focusing 
on a specific crime will make it easier to collect relevant 
information and to measure response effectiveness. 

Specific Responses to Identity Theft 

Prevention 

1. Raising businesses' awareness of their 
responsibility to protect employee and client records. 

Offenders steal many identities from inadequately 
protected business records. There are many commonsense, 
low-tech ways to protect databases. You may work 
through local business associations, or establish working 
relationships with local businesses. Do not assume that all, 
or even most, businesses are aware of the opportunities 
afforded identity thieves by poor protection of their 
records. Many businesses do not institute security 
procedures because they do not consider them cost-
effective. Mindful of businesses' reasonable concern for 


Responses to the Problem of Identity Theft 

profits, you should try to convince businesses that the 
costs of losing data, in terms of both their reputation 
with clients and possible lawsuits by victims, are much 
higher than those of following the many simple 
procedures to protect private information. State and/or 
federal laws such as GLB (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act), 
HIPAA (HealthInsurance Portability and Accountability 
Act of 1996), and FACTA (Fair and Accurate Credit 
Transactions Act) require certain businesses or institutions 
to protect information better. The Internet provides 
considerable information on how businesses should 
protect their records. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse 
recommends the following practices: 

• 
Develop a comprehensive privacy policy that includes 
responsible information-handling procedures. Use a 
shredder or similar document-disposal method. 
• 
Conduct regular staff training, new-employee 
orientations, and spot checks on proper information 
care. 
• 
Support and participate in multiagency financial-crimes 
task forces. 
• 
Limit data collection to the minimum of information 
needed; for example, limit requests for social security 
numbers. 
• 
Put limits on data disclosure. For example, must social 
security numbers be printed on paychecks, parking 
permits, staff badges, time sheets, training program 
rosters, staff promotion lists, monthly account 
statements, client reports, etc.? 
• 
Restrict data access to only those employees with a 
legitimate need to know. Audit electronic trails. Impose 
strict penalties for browsing and illegitimate access. 



• 
Conduct employee background checks. Screen cleaning 
services, temp services, etc. 
• 
Include responsible information-handling practices in 
business school courses, and even in elementary 
schools, if children have access to computers. 


2. 
Educating people about protecting their personal 
information. The Internet has an enormous amount of 
information on how to avoid becoming an identity theft 
victim (see Appendix B for a selection of the main 
sources). Some police departments include special sections 
on identity theft on their websites, all with information on 
how to protect one's identity. To get the message out, you 
need to work through the community's main support 
organizations: schools, consumer advocacy groups, seniors' 
community centers and organizations, neighborhood watch 
meetings, and other community service groups. If your 
police department has a website, include information 
sources on protecting identity on the site. If budget 
permits, print out information brochures to hand out at 
meetings. The best publication on preventing identity theft 
is available free on the Internet or from the Federal Trade 
Commission: Identity Theft: When Bad Things Happen to Your 
Good Name. It should be emphasized, however, that there 
have been no scientific evaluations of the effectiveness of 
the advice given in this document and on many websites. 
Much of the advice is "common sense" (for example, 
don't leave personal information such as credit card 
statements in your trashcan). 

3. 
Collaborating with government and other service 
organizations to protect private information. Social 
security numbers and driver's licenses are the two most 
common forms of identification used in the United States. 





While identity theft awareness has increased considerably 
since the Identity Theft Act of 1998, agencies still need 
support in efforts to reduce the use of social security 
numbers as identifiers (very common on health insurance 
cards, for example), and local agency personnel may need 
to be constantly reminded of the risks involved in lax use 
of private information. Although some of the following 
recommendations are probably beyond the scope of local 
police, it is important that you work with agencies 
concerned about these issues, since it helps solidify your 
relationship with those whose help you may need to 
investigate identity theft cases or help victims resolve the 
problems they face, such as getting a new driver's license. 
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse recommends the 
following practices: 

• 
Keep social security numbers out of general 
circulation. 
• 
Prohibit the use of social security numbers to obtain a 
driver's license, health insurance ID, or other forms of 
identification. 
• 
Prohibit the sale of social security numbers, available 
now on information-broker websites. 
• 
Maintain central clearinghouses in each state for lost 
and stolen driver's licenses. 
• 
Conduct better photo- and ID-checking for new, 
duplicate, and replacement IDs. 
• 
Restrict access to birth certificates in states where they 
are now publicly accessible. 
• 
Remove social security numbers and other sensitive 
information from public records, especially when 
accessible on the Internet. 





4. Working with local banks to encourage credit card 
issuers to adopt improved security practices. The 
major credit card companies have national and 
international reach, so it is unlikely that your local efforts 
will directly influence their security policies. It is also clear 
that their marketing policies sometimes contribute to 
identity theft–such as the massive number of preapproved 
offers of credit they mail to consumers. However, local 
banks often have agreements with the major credit card 
companies, especially as many ATM (or debit) cards also 
serve as credit cards. Thus, local banks, as customers of 
credit card companies, may have some influence on their 
card-issuing policies. In addition, by working closely with 
local banks, you may make it easier to establish procedures 
for local identity theft victims to repair the damage done, 
and get their accounts operating again. Bear in mind that 
some financial institutions won't give investigators 
information about their clients' accounts unless through a 
court order or similar legal process (the new Fair and 
Accurate Credit Transactions Act removes this 
requirement as of June 2004). However, they will give the 
information to their client–the victim. Thus, working 
closely with the victim is vital (see response #6). You 
should urge your local banks and businesses to pressure 
credit card companies to do the following: 
• 
Conduct better identity verification, especially when the 
person's address is reported as changed or differs from 
what his or her credit report indicates. 
• 
Conduct better identity verification for those using 
preapproved credit cards. Don't rely solely on social 
security numbers. Have the person provide his or her 
utility bills, tax record address, etc. 







• 
Improve identity checking procedures for "instant" 
credit, favored by identity thieves. 
• 
Put photographs on credit cards, or other 
authentication indicators such as smart chips or PINS. 
• 
Request additional ID when verifying credit card 
purchases at the point of sale. 
• 
Enable customers to put passwords on credit accounts. 
• 
Truncate digits on account numbers printed on receipts 
at the point of sale. 
• 
Use account-profiling systems to detect unusual 
activity. Notify the consumer of possible fraud. 
• 
Check if there is an existing account in the applicant's 
name. 
• 
Check the social security master-death index. 
• 
Reduce the number of preapproved credit applications 
mailed to consumers. Don't mail such offers to anyone 
under 18. Print an opt-out phone number prominently 
on all such offers (1.888.5OPTOUT). 
• 
Prohibit convenience checks, or at least provide an opt-
out to credit card and bank customers. 


Responses to the Problem of Identity Theft 

5. Tracking delivery. Much of identity theft depends on 
the delivery of documents and products. Vacant houses 
or apartments are prime locations for delivery of products 
or diverted mail. Credit applications or driver's license 
renewal forms are at risk in mailboxes; products bought 
with stolen credit cards on the Internet are delivered to 
such addresses. Maintaining a close relationship with local 
postal inspectors and delivery companies such as UPS or 
FedEx may help you track items back to thieves. You can 
work with the local post office and delivery companies to 
train employees to: 


• 
take note of deliveries to houses that are vacant or up 
for sale; 
• 
spot driver's license renewals and credit card statements 
that go to unfamiliar addresses; and 
• 
maintain records of applications to forward mail or 
packages (the Postal Service now requires people to 
show ID to submit a change-of-address or mail-
forwarding application). 


Victim Assistance 

6. Working with the victim. Victims have many 
protections under federal and state law that prevent them 
from being liable for unauthorized charges, withdrawals, or 
other unlawful activities of identity thieves. They also have 
rights regarding the accuracy of their credit reports. 
Police need to understand how consumers are protected, 
and provide victims with educational resources that 
explain their rights and the steps they need to take to 
assert them. The FTC's comprehensive guide, When Bad 
Things Happen to Your Good Name, and its website, 
www.consumer.gov/idtheft, provide consumers with the 
information they need to deal with fraudulent debts and 
any negative credit-report information resulting from 
identity theft. 

Communicating with victims is important, as well. The 
most frequent complaint the Identity Theft Resource 
Center receives is that "the police just don't care." It is 
important to let victims know that the police do care and 
do understand. Remember that identity theft victims have 
been repeatedly victimized. Identity theft is an emotionally 
harmful crime. Furthermore, you should be aware that 



victims typically uncover more evidence in a case than do 
investigators, and more rapidly. Thus you should quickly 
develop a close working relationship with the victim. The 
steps you can take to do so are as follows:31 

• 
Assure the victim that you will take a police or incident 
report and give him or her a copy. This is important 
because many, if not all, identity theft crimes fall under 
several jurisdictions. For example, the offender steals 
the credit card in one state and uses it in another; the 
card company is located in yet a different state; and the 
victim lives elsewhere. Even though there may be many 
cross-jurisdictional issues involved, you should 
immediately respond to the victim by preparing a police 
or incident report. Without one, the victim will have 
difficulty filing an identity theft affidavit. At a 
minimum, file a report with the FTC Consumer 
Sentinel database. 
• 
Have available the Identity Theft Victim Guide, which 
outlines what steps a victim should take, and how the 
victim should prepare for the investigator's phone call 
or visit. It should be mailed to the victim, as well as 
available on your department's website. The guide 
should list what steps your department takes after 
receiving a complaint, and exactly what information 
and documentation the victim needs to provide when 
interviewed. 
• 
Recommend that, for the initial meeting, the victim 
prepare a rough written draft of the case. The victim 
should provide his or her name and contact details; 
state when he or she discovered the fraud; list any 
fraudulent activity to date, in chronological order; list 
the affected accounts; and provide facts about the 
imposter, if any are known. 



• 
At your initial meeting with the victim, he or she may 
be frustrated and angry. Inform the victim what it's like 
"behind the scenes" of a fraud investigation; what the 
procedures will be from this point forward; how soon it 
will be before a copy of the police report is available; 
when he or she will hear from you next; and what the 
chances are of catching the offender. 
• 
Help victims to understand and exercise their rights 
under the federal credit laws. They will have to take 
many steps to restore their accounts, be released from 
fraudulent debts, and clean up their credit reports. 
Many of these steps must be followed up in writing. 
Therefore, direct the victim to Internet resources (such 
as the FTC website, www.consumer.gov/idtheft), or 
give the victim written materials that explain how the 
recovery process works. Help the victim secure the 
necessary paperwork, such as an identity theft affidavit, 
and give the victim a copy of the police or incident 
report regarding his or her case. Also give the victim 
information on how to contact the credit-reporting 
companies. 
• 
Enter the victim's complaint information into the 
FTC's Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse, letting the 
victim know that you are doing so on his or her behalf, 
or advise the victim to file a complaint with the FTC, 
either online at www.consumer.gov/idtheft, or by 
calling 1.877.ID.THEFT (1.877.438.4338). Explain to 
the victim that while the individual identity theft 
complaint may not be enough to bring to a prosecutor, 
putting it into the national database will enable 
investigators across the country to combine it with any 
other complaints about the same offender, making 
prosecution more likely. 





7. Preparing a plan to prevent or minimize the harm 
of identity theft when large identity databases have 
been breached. When a business or government agency 
reports that its employee records or client databases have 
been violated, police and others must act quickly to reduce 
the amount of time the thief has to use the stolen 
identities. Such a case occurred in California when a thief 
broke into state government databases and stole personal 
information of 265,000 employees, including the governor. 
The following steps were taken: 

• 
Toll-free, dedicated phone lines were set up for 
employees to call the three major credit bureaus to 
warn of the theft. 
• 
Employees received information packets on what to do 
to protect their identities and reduce damage, how to 
read credit reports, how a fraud alert on a credit file 
works, and so on. 
• 
The state held workshops for employees, distributed 
videos, and launched a webpage with helpful 
information. 


The FTC has published a response guide on what a 
business should do if files with customers' personal 
information have been compromised. It sets out a step-by-
step plan and includes a model letter to notify customers 
whose information was compromised. The guide is 
available online at 
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/idtbizkit. 
htm. 


Appendix 

Appendix A: Summary of Responses to 
Identity Theft 

The table below summarizes the responses to identity 
theft, the mechanism by which they are intended to work, 
the conditions under which they ought to work best, and 
some factors you should consider before implementing a 
particular response. It is critical that you tailor responses 
to local circumstances, and that you can justify each 
response based on reliable analysis. In most cases, an 
effective strategy will involve implementing several 
different responses. Law enforcement responses alone are 
seldom effective in reducing or solving the problem. 

Response 
No. 
Page No. Response How It Works Works Best If… Considerations 
Prevention 
1. 32 Raisingbusinesses' 
awareness of 
their 
You work with 
businesses to 
ensure that theyfollow best 
…you have a 
good workingrelationship withlocal businesses 
You must 
overcome 
businesses' 
concerns that 
responsibility toprotect employee 
and client 
records 
practices forsecuringpersonal records 
security practiceswill affect their 
bottom line 
2. 34 Educatingpeople aboutprotecting theirpersonalinformation 
You work with 
local schools and 
citizen and 
consumer groups 
to teach theft 
prevention 
techniques 
…you use the 
wealth of 
information 
available on the 
Internet and 
provided by manyfederal and state 
agencies 
This should be 
made a part of 
your 
department's 
regular outreach 
activities 


Response 
No. 
Page No. Response How It Works Works Best If… Considerations 
3. 34 Collaboratingwith government 
and other service 
organizations to 
protect private 
information 
You work with 
service agencies 
to reduce the use 
of social security 
numbers as 
identifiers 
…you have a 
good workingrelationship withthe agencies, 
especially thosethat issue 
identification 
documents 
Your influence 
may be limited, 
depending on your 
reputation fordealing withidentity theft, and 
the size of the 
government 
bureaucracy 
4. 36 Working withlocal banks to 
encourage credit 
card issuers to 
adopt improved 
security practices 
You urge banks 
to demand that 
credit card 
issuers developbetter identityverification 
techniques 
…you have a 
good workingrelationship withlocal banks 
Credit card issuers 
are often 
international in 
scope, so their 
security practicesmight be beyond 
the influence of 
local financial 
institutions 
5. 37 Tracking delivery You work with 
the post officeand deliverycompanies tomonitor vacant 
residences and 
diverted 
deliveries of 
mail 
…you help traindelivery 
employees tospot suspiciousdeliveries 
This requiresconsiderable effort 
to maintain 
monitoring andtraining over time 
Victim Assistance6. 38 Working withthe victim 
You adopt thevictim as your 
partner in the 
investigation 
…you address 
victim concerns 
early and show 
that you care, 
provide the 
victim with a 
copy of the 
police orincident report, 
and direct the 
victim to 
resources 
outlining theself-help steps heor she needs to 
Cross-
jurisdictionalissues may hamper 
your response andfrustrate the 
victim; the 
number of 
identity theftincidents mayinitially appear torise after you 
adopt a policy towrite reports for 
all victims; the 
victim will still 
take need to make 
follow-up phone 


Appendix 

45 

Response 
No. 
Page No. Response How It Works Works Best If… Considerations 
6. calls and send 
(cont’d) follow-updocuments to 
resolve their 
identity theftproblems, which 
may prove 
burdensome 
7. 41 Preparing aplan to prevent 
or minimize the 
harm of 
identity theftwhen large 
identitydatabases have 
been breached 
You work with 
local businesses 
and service 
agencies to 
develop adisaster planshould massive 
theft of personalrecords occur 
…you have a 
good workingrelationship withlocal agencies, so 
that the plan canbe put into effectimmediately toreduce the time 
the thief has to 
use stolen 
This requirescoordination and 
cooperationbetween local 
businesses and 
government, and 
direct contact with 
national credit-
reporting agencies 
records 


Appendix B: Selected Identity Theft Resources 

Appendix B: Selected Identity Theft 
Resources 

Help for Victims and Others 

• 
Major credit reporting agencies: 
Equifax, P.O. Box 74021, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241. 
Phone: 800.916.8800. www.equifax.com 
Experian (formerly TRW), P.O. Box 8030, Layton, 
UT 84041-8030. Phone: 888.397.3742. 
www.experian.com. 
TransUnion, P.O. Box 390, Springfield, PA 19064. 
Phone: 800.916.8800. www.transunion.com 
• 
To file an identity theft complaint: 
By phone, toll-free: 877.ID.THEFT (877.438.4338)
Online: www.consumer.gov/idtheft
By mail: Identity Theft Clearinghouse, Federal
Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.,
Washington, DC 20580


• 
To opt out of prescreened credit card offers by phone, 
toll-free: 888.5.OPT.OUT 
• 
To learn about privacy choices for personal financial 
information online: 
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/privacy/default.htm 


Federal Government Resources 

Department of Justice:
www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html
FBI: http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm
FTC: www.consumer.gov/idtheft and www.ftc.gov



Consumer Advocacy 

AARP: 
http://research.aarp.org/consume/dd85_idtheft.html 
CALPIRG and USPIRG: www.pirg.org 
ID Theft Resource Center for Law Enforcement: 
http://www.idtheftcenter.org/lawenforcement.shtml 
Identity Theft Survival Kit: www.identitytheft.org 
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse: www.privacyrights.org 

Law Enforcement Consortia 

International Association of Financial Crime 
Investigators: http://www.iafci.org/home.html 

Useful Documents 

"Coping With Identity Theft: What to Do When 
an Impostor Strikes," by Privacy Rights 
Clearinghouse (Fact Sheet 17). 
www.privacyrights.org. 

"Identity Theft Survival Kit" and "From Victim to 
Victor: A Step-by-Step Guide for Ending the 
Nightmare of Identity Theft," by Mari Frank. 
Available at www.identitytheft.org 

"Identity Theft: When Bad Things Happen to 
Your Good Name," by Federal Trade Commission 
(September 2002). Phone: 877.ID.THEFT. 
www.consumer.gov/idtheft 


Endnotes 

Endnotes 

1 U.S. Public Law 105-318 (1998).
2 Newman and Clarke (2003).
3 Maxfield and Clarke (in press).
4 United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (2003).
5 Federal Trade Commission (2003a).
6 Federal Trade Commission (2003c).
7 CALPIRG (2000) and Identity Theft Resource Center (2003).
8 Identity Theft Resource Center (2003).
9 Goodwin (2003).
10 Lease and Burke (2000).
11 Federal Trade Commission (2003a).
12 Personal communication, John McCullough, Minnesota Financial Crimes


Task Force. 
13 Federal Trade Commission (2003a). 
14 Federal Trade Commission (2003a). 
15 Federal Trade Commission (2003a). 
16 Federal Trade Commission (2003). 
17 Verton (2001); Federal Trade Commission (2003a). 
18 Burns, Ronni (2004). Citicard presentation to Identity Theft Focus Group, 

Major Cities Chiefs Association, May 3. 
19 Cullier (2003). 
20 Davis (2001). 
21 Willox (2000). 
22 Willox (2000). 
23 Davis (2001). 
24 Willox (2002). 
25 Whitlock (1999). 
26 North County Times (2002). 
27 Levi and Handley (n.d.). 
28 Mativat and Tremblay (1997). 
29 Lacoste and Tremblay (2003). 
30 Newman and Clarke (2003), pp. 117-118, 126. 
31 Foley (2003). 


References 

References 

CALPIRG (2000). Nowhere to Turn: Victims Speak out on 
Identity Theft. A CALPIRG/PRC Report–May. 
Sacramento, Calif.: Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. 

Cullier, D. (2003). "WSU Study Shows Washingtonians 
Fear Identity Theft But Want Government to Operate 
in the Open." Washington State University News 
Service. Feb. 26. 
http://www.wsunews.wsu.edu/detail.asp?StoryID=3750 

Davis, K. (2002). "Clean up Your Trash: A Home Shredder 
Is Insurance Against Identity Theft." Kiplinger Personal 
Finance 56(6):102. 

(2001). "Anatomy of a Fraud." Kiplinger's Personal
Finance 55(3):90.


Economic Crime Institute (2003). "Identity Fraud: A 
Critical National and Global Threat." White Paper. A 
Joint Project of the Economic Crime Institute of 
Utica College and LexisNexis. Oct. 28. 
http://www.ecii.edu/identity_fraud.pdf 

Finch, E. (2003). "What a Tangled Web We Weave: 
Identity Theft and the Internet." In Y. Jewkes (ed.), 
Dot.cons: Crime, Deviance, and Identity on the Internet. 
Cullompton, England: Willan. 

Federal Trade Commission (2003a). Identity Theft Report. 
http://www.ftc.gov/reports/index.htm 

(2003b). Overview of the Identity Theft Program,
October 1998–September 2003.
http://www.ftc.gov/reports/index.htm



(2003c). National and State Trends in Fraud and 
Identity Theft, January–December 2003. 
http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel/pubs/Top10Fraud2003. 
pdf 

Foley, L. (2003). "Enhancing Law Enforcement–Identity 
Theft Communication." Identity Theft Resource 
Center. http://www..idtheftcenter.org 

Goodwin, B. (2003). "Identity Theft Is Key Cybersecurity 
Fear." Computerweekly.com. April 17. 
http://194.203.155.34/Article121058.htm 

Identity Theft Resource Center with Dale Pletcher (2003). 
Identity Theft–The Aftermath. 
http://www.idtheftcenter.org/library.shtml 

International Association of Chiefs of Police (2000). 
"Curbing Identity Theft." Resolutions. 
http://www.theiacp.org/Resolutions/index.cfm?fuseaction= 
dis_public_view&resolution_id=20&CFID=138190&CFTO 
KEN=34557922 

Jackson, J. (1994). "Fraud Masters: Professional Credit 
Card Offenders and Crime." Criminal Justice Review 
19(1):24–55. 

Lacoste, J., and P. Tremblay (2003). "Crime Innovation: A 
Script Analysis of Patterns in Check Forgery." Crime 
Prevention Studies 16:171–198. 

Lease, M., and T. Burke (2000). "Identity Theft: A Fast-
Growing Crime." FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin 69(8). 


References 

Levi, M., and J. Handley (n.d.). Criminal Justice and the 
Future of Payment Card Fraud. London: IPPR Criminal 
Justice Forum. 

Mativat, F., and P. Tremblay (1997). "Counterfeiting Credit 
Cards: Displacement Effects, Suitable Offenders, and 
Crime Wave Patterns." British Journal of Criminology 
37(2):165–183. 

Maxfield, M., and R. Clarke (eds.) (in press). Understanding 
and Preventing Auto Theft. Crime Prevention Studies, 
Vol. 17. Monsey, N.Y.: Criminal Justice Press. 

Newman, G., and R. Clarke (2003). Superhighway Robbery: 
Preventing E-Commerce Crime. London: Willan. 

North County Times (2002). "Woman Hangs Self in Jail." 
April 1, Back Page. 

Schrader, A. (2003). "Colorado's Lax Laws Attract ID 
Thieves." Denver Post, Dec.1. 

United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research 
Institute (2003). Coalitions Against Trafficking in Human 
Beings in the Philippines. Research and Action Final 
Report: Anti-Human Trafficking Unit. Vienna, Austria: 
United Nations. See also 
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/publications/publications 
_trafficking.html 

U.S. General Accounting Office (2002). "Identity Fraud: 
Prevalence and Links to Illegal Alien Activities." 
Statement of Richard M. Stana, Director of Justice 
Issues. GAO-02-830T. 


(1998). "Identity Fraud." Report No. GGD-98-
100BR. http://www.gao.gov 

U.S. 
Public Law 105-318 (1998). 105th Cong.112 Stat. 
3007, (October 30, 1998). Identity Theft Assumption and 
Deterrence Act of 1998. 
U.S. 
Sentencing Commission (1999). Identity Theft: Final 
Report. Economic Crimes Policy Team. Dec. 15. 


Verton, D. (2001). "Identity Thefts Skyrocket, but Less 
Than 1% Occur Online." Computerworld 35(7). 

Whitlock, Craig (1999). "The Suspect Really Was Someone 
Else." Washington Post, Aug. 18. 

Willox, N. (2002). "Identity Fraud: Providing a Solution." 
Journal of Economic Crime Management 1(1). 

(2000). "Identity Theft: Authentication as a 
Solution." National Fraud Center, Identity Theft 
Summit, March 15–16. 


About the Author 

About the Author 

Graeme R. Newman 

Graeme R. Newman is a distinguished teaching professor at the 
School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, State University of 
New York. He has published works in the fields of the history and 
philosophy of punishment, comparative criminal justice, private 
security, situational crime prevention, and ecommerce crime, and has 
written commercial software. He was the CEO of a publishing 
company for 15 years and, in 1990, established the United Nations 
Crime and Justice Information Network. Among the books he has 
written or edited are Superhighway Robbery: Preventing Ecommerce Crime 
(with Ronald V. Clarke), and Rational Choice and Situational Crime 
Prevention (with Ronald V. Clarke and Shlomo Shoham). 


Recommended Readings 

Recommended Readings 

• 
A Police Guide to Surveying Citizens and Their 
Environments, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1993. This 
guide offers a practical introduction for police practitioners 
to two types of surveys that police find useful: surveying 
public opinion and surveying the physical environment. It 
provides guidance on whether and how to conduct cost-
effective surveys. 
• 
Assessing Responses to Problems: An 
Introductory Guide for Police Problem-Solvers, by 
John E. Eck (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of 
Community Oriented Policing Services, 2001). This guide is 
a companion to the Problem-Oriented Guides for Police series. It 
provides basic guidance to measuring and assessing 
problem-oriented policing efforts. 
• 
Conducting Community Surveys, by Deborah Weisel 
(Bureau of Justice Statistics and Office of Community 
Oriented Policing Services, 1999). This guide, along with 
accompanying computer software, provides practical, basic 
pointers for police in conducting community surveys. The 
document is also available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs. 
• 
Crime Prevention Studies, edited by Ronald V. Clarke 
(Criminal Justice Press, 1993, et seq.). This is a series of 
volumes of applied and theoretical research on reducing 
opportunities for crime. Many chapters are evaluations of 
initiatives to reduce specific crime and disorder problems. 



• 
Excellence in Problem-Oriented Policing:The 1999 
Herman Goldstein Award Winners. This document 
produced by the National Institute of Justice in 
collaboration with the Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services and the Police Executive Research Forum 
provides detailed reports of the best submissions to the 
annual award program that recognizes exemplary problem-
oriented responses to various community problems. A 
similar publication is available for the award winners from 
subsequent years. The documents are also available at 
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij. 
• 
Not Rocket Science? Problem-Solving and Crime 
Reduction, by Tim Read and Nick Tilley (Home Office 
Crime Reduction Research Series, 2000). Identifies and 
describes the factors that make problem-solving effective or 
ineffective as it is being practiced in police forces in 
England and Wales. 
• 
Opportunity Makes the Thief: Practical Theory for 
Crime Prevention, by Marcus Felson and Ronald V. 
Clarke (Home Office Police Research Series, Paper No. 98, 
1998). Explains how crime theories such as routine activity 
theory, rational choice theory and crime pattern theory have 
practical implications for the police in their efforts to 
prevent crime. 
• 
Problem Analysis in Policing, by Rachel Boba (Police 
Foundation, 2003). Introduces and defines problem 
analysis and provides guidance on how problem analysis 
can be integrated and institutionalized into modern 
policing practices. 



Recommended Readings 

• 
Problem-Oriented Policing, by Herman Goldstein 
(McGraw-Hill, 1990, and Temple University Press, 1990). 
Explains the principles and methods of problem-oriented 
policing, provides examples of it in practice, and discusses 
how a police agency can implement the concept. 
• 
Problem-Oriented Policing and Crime 
Prevention, by Anthony A. Braga (Criminal Justice 
Press, 2003). Provides a through review of significant 
policing research about problem places, high-activity 
offenders, and repeat victims, with a focus on the 
applicability of those findings to problem-oriented 
policing. Explains how police departments can facilitate 
problem-oriented policing by improving crime analysis, 
measuring performance, and securing productive 
partnerships. 
• 
Problem-Oriented Policing: Reflections on the 
First 20 Years, by Michael S. Scott (U.S. Department of 
Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 
2000). Describes how the most critical elements of 
Herman Goldstein's problem-oriented policing model have 
developed in practice over its 20-year history, and proposes 
future directions for problem-oriented policing. The report 
is also available at www.cops.usdoj.gov. 
• 
Problem-Solving: Problem-Oriented Policing in 
Newport News, by John E. Eck and William Spelman 
(Police Executive Research Forum, 1987). Explains the 
rationale behind problem-oriented policing and the 
problem-solving process, and provides examples of 
effective problem-solving in one agency. 



• 
Problem-Solving Tips: A Guide to Reducing Crime 
and Disorder Through Problem-Solving 
Partnerships by Karin Schmerler, Matt Perkins, Scott 
Phillips, Tammy Rinehart and Meg Townsend. (U.S. 
Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services, 1998) (also available at 
www.cops.usdoj.gov). Provides a brief introduction to 
problem-solving, basic information on the SARA model 
and detailed suggestions about the problem-solving process. 
• 
Situational Crime Prevention: Successful Case 
Studies, Second Edition, edited by Ronald V. Clarke 
(Harrow and Heston, 1997). Explains the principles and 
methods of situational crime prevention, and presents over 
20 case studies of effective crime prevention initiatives. 
• 
Tackling Crime and Other Public-Safety Problems: 
Case Studies in Problem-Solving, by Rana Sampson 
and Michael S. Scott (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of 
Community Oriented Policing Services, 2000) (also available 
at www.cops.usdoj.gov). Presents case studies of effective 
police problem-solving on 18 types of crime and disorder 
problems. 
• 
Using Analysis for Problem-Solving: A Guidebook 
for Law Enforcement, by Timothy S. Bynum (U.S. 
Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services, 2001). Provides an introduction for 
police to analyzing problems within the context of 
problem-oriented policing. 
• 
Using Research: A Primer for Law Enforcement 
Managers, Second Edition, by John E. Eck and Nancy G. 
LaVigne (Police Executive Research Forum, 1994). Explains 
many of the basics of research as it applies to police 
management and problem-solving. 



Other Problem-Oriented Guides for Police 

Other Problem-Oriented Guides for Police 

Problem-Specific Guides series: 

1. 
Assaults in and Around Bars. Michael S. Scott. 2001. 
ISBN: 1-932582-00-2 
2. 
Street Prostitution. Michael S. Scott. 2001. ISBN: 1-932582-01-0 
3. 
Speeding in Residential Areas. Michael S. Scott. 2001. 
ISBN: 1-932582-02-9 
4. 
Drug Dealing in Privately Owned Apartment Complexes. 
Rana Sampson. 2001. ISBN: 1-932582-03-7 
5. 
False Burglar Alarms. Rana Sampson. 2001. ISBN: 1-932582-04-5 
6. 
Disorderly Youth in Public Places. Michael S. Scott. 2001. 
ISBN: 1-932582-05-3 
7. 
Loud Car Stereos. Michael S. Scott. 2001. ISBN: 1-932582-06-1 
8. 
Robbery at Automated Teller Machines. Michael S. Scott. 2001. 
ISBN: 1-932582-07-X 
9. 
Graffiti. Deborah Lamm Weisel. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-08-8 
10. 
Thefts of and From Cars in Parking Facilities. Ronald V. 
Clarke. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-09-6 
11. 
Shoplifting. Ronald V. Clarke. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-10-X 
12. 
Bullying in Schools. Rana Sampson. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-11-8 
13. 
Panhandling. Michael S. Scott. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-12-6 
14. 
Rave Parties. Michael S. Scott. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-13-4 
15. 
Burglary of Retail Establishments. Ronald V. Clarke. 2002. 
ISBN: 1-932582-14-2 
16. 
Clandestine Drug Labs. Michael S. Scott. 2002. 
ISBN: 1-932582-15-0 
17. 
Acquaintance Rape of College Students. Rana Sampson. 2002. 
ISBN: 1-932582-16-9 
18. 
Burglary of Single-Family Houses. Deborah Lamm Weisel. 
2002. ISBN: 1-932582-17-7 
19. 
Misuse and Abuse of 911. Rana Sampson. 2002. 
ISBN: 1-932582-18-5 



20. Financial Crimes Against the Elderly. 

Kelly Dedel Johnson. 2003. ISBN: 1-932582-22-3 

21. 
Check and Card Fraud. Graeme R. Newman. 2003. 
ISBN: 1-932582-27-4 
22. 
Stalking. The National Center for Victims of Crime. 2004. 
ISBN: 1-932582-30-4 
23. 
Gun Violence Among Serious Young Offenders. Anthony A. 
Braga. 2004. ISBN: 1-932582-31-2 
24. 
Prescription Fraud. Julie Wartell, Nancy G. La Vigne. 2004. 
ISBN: 1-932582-33-9 
25. 
Identity Theft. Graeme R. Newman. 2004 ISBN: 1-932582-35-3 


Response Guides series: 

• The Benefits and Consequences of Police Crackdowns. 

Michael S. Scott. 2003. ISBN: 1-932582-24-X 

Problem-Solving Tools series: 

• Assessing Responses to Problems: An Introductory Guide for 
Police Problem-Solvers. John E. Eck. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-19-3 

Upcoming Problem-Oriented Guides for Police 

Problem-Specific Guides 
Crimes Against Tourists 
Disorder at Budget Motels 
Domestic Violence 
Mentally Ill Persons 
Robbery of Taxi Drivers 
Student Party Disturbances on College Campuses 
School Break-Ins 
Street Racing 
Bomb Threats in Schools 
Underage Drinking 


Other Problem-Oriented Guides for Police 

Open-Air Drug Markets 
Sexual Offenses in Public Places 
Drunk Driving 
Cruising 
Bank Robbery 

Response Guides 
Closing Streets and Alleys to Reduce Crime 

Problem-Solving Tools 
Repeat Victimization 
Using Offender Interviews to Inform Police Problem-Solving 

Other Related COPS Office Publications 

• 
Using Analysis for Problem-Solving: A Guidebook 
for Law Enforcement. Timothy S. Bynum. 
• 
Problem-Oriented Policing: Reflections on the First 
20 Years. Michael S. Scott. 2001. 
• 
Tackling Crime and Other Public-Safety Problems: 
Case Studies in Problem-Solving. Rana Sampson and 
Michael S. Scott. 2000. 
• 
Community Policing, Community Justice, and 
Restorative Justice: Exploring the Links for the 
Delivery of a Balanced Approach to Public Safety. 


Caroline G. Nicholl. 1999. 

• 
Toolbox for Implementing Restorative Justice and 
Advancing Community Policing. Caroline G. Nicholl. 
2000. 
• 
Problem-Solving Tips: A Guide to Reducing 
Crime and Disorder Through Problem-Solving 
Partnerships. Karin Schmerler, Matt Perkins, Scott 
Phillips, Tammy Rinehart and Meg Townsend. 1998. 



• 
Bringing Victims into Community Policing. The 
National Center for Victims of Crime and the Police 
Foundation. 2002. 
• 
Call Management and Community Policing. Tom 
McEwen, Deborah Spence, Russell Wolff, Julie Wartell 
and Barbara Webster. 2003. 
• 
Crime Analysis in America. Timothy C. O’Shea and 
Keith Nicholls. 2003. 
• 
Problem Analysis in Policing. Rachel Boba. 2003. 
• 
Reducing Theft at Construction Sites: Lessons 
From a Problem-Oriented Project. Ronald V. Clarke 
and Herman Goldstein. 2003. 
• 
The COPS Collaboration Toolkit: How to Build, 
Fix, and Sustain Productive Partnerships. Gwen O. 
Briscoe, Anna T. Laszlo and Tammy A. Rinehart. 
2001. 
• 
The Law Enforcement Tech Guide: How to plan, 
purchase and manage technology (successfully!). 


Kelly J. Harris and William H. Romesburg. 2002. 

• Theft From Cars in Center City Parking 
Facilities - A Case Study. Ronald V. Clarke and 
Herman Goldstein. 2003. 

For more information about the Problem-Oriented Guides for 
Police series and other COPS Office publications, please call 
the Department of Justice Response Center at 800.421.6770 
or visit COPS Online at www.cops.usdoj.gov. 


FOR MORE INFORMATION: 

U.S. Department of JusticeOffice of Community Oriented Policing Services 

1100 Vermont Avenue, N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20530 

To obtain details on COPS programs, call the 
COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770 

Visit COPS Online at the address listed below.