BILL REQ. #:  Z-0666.1 

Prefiled 01/11/08. Read first time 01/14/08.   Referred to Committee on Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness.

     AN ACT Relating to identity theft; adding a new section to chapter 9.35 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that victims of identity theft who try to file police incident reports in either the jurisdiction where any part of the crime occurred, or in the jurisdiction in which the victim resides, are sometimes prohibited by the police department from doing so. Several statutes previously passed by the legislature require a victim of identity theft to possess and display a police incident report as a condition of enforcing the rights provided by certain statutes. A police incident report is necessary for an identity theft victim to exercise certain state and federal rights, and is helpful in asserting the rights of others.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 9.35 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) A person who has learned or reasonably suspects that his or her financial information or means of identification has been unlawfully obtained, used by, or disclosed to another, as described in this chapter, may file an incident report with a law enforcement agency, by contacting the local law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction over his or her actual residence, place of business, or place where the crime occurred. The law enforcement agency shall create a police incident report of the matter and provide the complainant with a copy of that report, and may refer the incident report to another law enforcement agency.
     (2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require a law enforcement agency to investigate reports claiming identity theft. An incident report filed under this section is not required to be counted as an open case for purposes of compiling open case statistics.