Brief Description: Requiring police reports to be given to victims of identity theft.

Sponsors: Senate Committee on Financial Institutions, Housing & Consumer Protection (originally sponsored by Senators Fairley, Delvin, Kohl-Welles, Rockefeller, Oke, Rasmussen and Shin).

Senate Committee on Financial Institutions, Housing & Consumer Protection
House Committee on Financial Institutions & Insurance

Background: Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in Washington State. Consumers who have been victimized find that they may need to obtain a police report, in order to put a "fraud alert" on their credit history, and to facilitate the process of clearing the fraud from their financial records. Some victims report reluctance on the part of some police departments to provide a police report for identity theft crimes.

Summary: Washington State's Identity Theft statute is revised to require that all police and sheriff's departments in Washington provide police reports, at the request of victims of identity theft. However, this does not require that a law enforcement agency investigate incident reports claiming identity theft.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate      45   0
House      94   0   (House amended)
Senate      41   0   (Senate concurred)

Effective: July 24, 2005