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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Meth, ID theft study has merit

The Spokesman-Review

The evidence of a link between identity theft and methamphetamine abuse may be anecdotal, as U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell concedes in a recent press release, but it’s still compelling.

Anecdotal or not, available data seem to have made a believer of Cantwell, but the Washington Democrat knows she needs to make an ironclad case if she wants to jolt her congressional colleagues into action. Consequently she made the rounds of the state this week, linking arms with local law enforcement officers, calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to do a comprehensive study.

Identify theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the country, and particularly so in Washington, which ranks eighth among the 50 states for identity theft crimes. And in one community after another, authorities report that the offenders are also involved with methamphetamine.

If clear documentation can be developed, Cantwell believes, the federal government can be persuaded to develop an appropriate response. No state or federal law can remove the incentive for criminal behavior that is embodied in a costly drug habit. But national authorities should be able to partner with local officials to assure that appropriate crime-fighting resources are available.

During a Spokane appearance by Cantwell on Monday, Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk said 93 percent of the felony property crimes brought by the Property Crimes Task Force in Spokane County last year were attributed to offenders supporting meth habits.

He said 27 major identity theft cases went to court in Spokane County and every one of them involved a defendant who abused methamphetamine.

Spokane is not unique. A police detective in Eugene told MSNBC that 90 percent of the Oregon city’s ID-theft cases involve drugs. In Yakima and Olympia, the story is similar. When authorities in Tooele County, Utah, broke up one of the biggest ID-theft activities in the state in February, guess what they found on the premises.

Authorities throughout the West are witnessing the same pattern. In Arizona, where a meth-related identity-theft operation was broken up last fall, Pima County sheriff’s Detective Keith Smith noted that highly stimulated addicts often spend their wired and wakeful hours faking checks and driver’s licenses. Some have gone as far as reconstructing shredded documents.

Said Smith: “They have to pay for their drugs. They have to eat. They have to pay their rent. This is how they do it. This is their job.”

Yet cities and counties have limited budgets with which to go after highly motivated offenders who can work inconspicuously out of their homes. Whatever assistance the federal government can render, a dollar sign will be attached.

With that in mind, the Justice Department should grant Cantwell the study she asks but without overgathering statistics to verify what’s already a convincing case. Perhaps, the feds should concentrate on figuring out which is the causal agent in the relationship – meth or ID theft – and then focusing its crime-fighting resources accordingly.