Fighting identity theft is aim of summit

Brownsville police, Cameron County Sheriff’s deputies and other area law enforcement will participate in an identity-theft summit Tuesday to learn investigative techniques designed to help agencies combat the crime.

The city of Brownsville is ranked No. 2 in the nation for identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission, second only the Miami. McAllen is No. 4 on the list.

Texas ranked fifth among U.S. states for identity theft.

Brownsville frequently is among the top cities on the list, which is compiled from consumer complaints sent to the Federal Trade Commission, a government agency meant to protect consumers. The ranking is not based on reports from credit card companies, banks or police.

“We do get a lot of that,” Interim Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez said of identity theft, but he noted that the rankings reflect only crimes that have been reported to the government.

He said people may not be aware that they are being victimized and give out information about themselves that they shouldn’t.

“It’s something we’re working on,” Rodriguez said. “We want to launch communication with the community and raise awareness.”

About 30 Brownsville police officers will attend Tuesday’s training session, organized by a program affiliated with the FBI and a private firm that offers identity-theft protection.

A spokesperson from the firm, LifeLock Inc., said the event will host 48 law enforcement officers from the Cameron County Sheriff’s Department, the San Benito Police Department, the Pharr Police Department and the South Padre Island Police Department, along with Brownsville officers.

“They will be getting into investigative techniques, learning to work with identity-theft victims to advance the cases,” said Tom Pitts, a spokesman for LifeLock.

A special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who specializes in fraud and identity theft will lead the demonstrations, Pitts said.

Brownsville Police arrested two men in December for participating in a Valley-wide identity-theft scam in which they used personal information released in obituaries to pose as life insurance agents and trick relatives into divulging the Social Security number of the deceased.

The men then added themselves as authorized users on the person’s credit card, charging up thousands of dollars in debt.

At the time, Brownsville police warned the community to be wary of giving out personal information over the telephone.

The training summit is at the Brownsville Event Center from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.