State Legislatures Weekly: Foiling ID Thieves

Excerpt from October/November 2004 article!

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Foiling I.D. Thieves

Identity theft is on the rise, and states are looking for ways to secure their citizens' vital records.

By Garry Boulard
October/November 2004

Every day in Des Moines, contract workers in the state Department of Public Health's Bureau of Health Statistics are involved in what seems to be an endless task: transferring more than 5 million birth, marriage and death records from old bound ledgers and microfilm into one computer file.

"We've done birth certificates going back to 1930 and death and marriage records going back to 1954," says Bureau Chief Jill France. "The initial data capture is now done, but we also have a good many issues still to resolve from handwritten records where the writing may have not been legible."

The extensive transfer has so far cost Iowa some $2 million. But it will allow law enforcement officials to go to one easy file to find information that had previously been scattered. "Only authorized personnel will have access to these records," says France. "They, in turn, are authorized to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in the conduct of their official duties."

In a different time, Iowa's move to centralize its vital records might have seemed like nothing more than an interesting, if unconventional, stab at bureaucratic streamlining.

But since the explosion in identity theft--reported incidents jumped 33 percent between 2002 and 2003--how state governments organize, archive and protect the vital records of their citizens has become a matter of abiding, if chilling, concern.

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