| Washington State House of Representatives Office of Program Research |
BILL ANALYSIS |
| Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness Committee | |
SB 5878
This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in
their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a
statement of legislative intent.
Brief Description: Concerning the filing of police incident reports for victims of identity theft.
Sponsors: Senators Hargrove, Kline, Eide, Marr, Shin, Jacobsen, Kohl-Welles, Rasmussen and Keiser.
Brief Summary of Bill |
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Hearing Date: 2/20/08
Staff: Yvonne Walker (786-7841).
Background:
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, in order for a victim to have certain information blocked on
his or her consumer report due to an identity theft crime that has occurred, the victim must
provide the consumer reporting agency with a copy of the police report. Generally, a police
incident report indicating an offense has occurred is required in order to freeze credit, to place a
long-term fraud alert on a credit report, and to obtain records of fraudulent accounts from
merchants.
Police incident reports are used for many reasons such as: recording arrests, domestic disputes,
traffic accidents, burglaries, fraud, thefts, stalkings, violence, recording injuries, crimes, and
other incidents. Washington law does not specify when, where, or if an incident report has to be
created, by a law enforcement officer during incidents where an identity theft crime has
occurred.
Summary of Bill:
If at any time a victim learns or suspects that he or she has been a victim of an identity crime,
that victim may file an incident report with a local law enforcement agency. The incident report
may be filed with the local law enforcement agency in the jurisdiction where the crime occurred
or in the jurisdiction of the victim's residence or place of employment.
The law enforcement agency must create a police incident report of the matter, provide the
complainant with a copy of that report, and may refer the incident report to another law
enforcement agency. The law enforcement agency taking the incident report is not required to
investigate the identity theft report and any incident report filed is not required to be counted as
an open case for purposes of compiling open case statistics.
Appropriation: None.
Fiscal Note: Requested on February 18, 2008.
Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.