Comments:

I supervise 12 detectives who are responsible for investigating identity theft cases in addition to check and credit card fraud (approximately 11,000 cases annually in San Antonio). Any legislation that can help to uncover identity theft sooner, can only benefit those of us who are trying to investigate these crimes. One of the difficult and frustrating aspects of the crime of identity theft is that the time lapse from when the identity theft occurs to when it is discovered averages 12 months. If more people had access to their credit reports, this time lapse would decrease. People need to have free access to their credit reports and one free report per year would go a long way in discovering a fraudulently opened account sooner. Those of us who have to deal with victims of identity theft everyday would greatly benefit from this legislation.