Identify theft is soaring at epidemic proportions nationwide, impacting millions of citizens and affecting commerce globally. As law enforcement agencies are forced to cut budgets, attention to non-violent crime such as identity theft has diminished, but ignoring the problem isn’t the answer.

For the sake of identity theft victims, Law enforcement agencies must look for ways to confront the challenges of this sophisticated and every-changing crime. The simplest solution is to seek alliances with the private sector to learn the highly technical methods used by individuals and organizations engaged in identify theft. Or to put it more simply, they must study the minds of the criminals.

Several years ago LifeLock realized this need to provide assistance to law enforcement agencies. We partnered with the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association (FBI-LEEDA) in October 2008 to create a curriculum to educate and train law enforcement personnel. It was a natural and necessary step towards combating identity theft.

The FBI-LEEDA/LifeLock Identity Theft Summits are offered to the law enforcement community at no cost to participants or agencies. At the time of this posting, we’ve conducted summits in 32 states throughout the United States, impacting over 6,500 law enforcement participants representing 2,500 agencies.

These trainings focus on a range of identity theft issues, including relevant laws, identity theft through sophisticated technology, identity theft awareness and protection strategies, databases to assist in investigations and investigative strategies. And we’ve partnered with some pretty impressive experts to help us.

The presenters are professionals in the field of identity theft detection, recognized nationally for their expertise. Fraud investigators from various financial institutions also participate in the summits, sharing information and techniques and building alliances between the public and private sectors.

“We believe the summits play a significant role in law enforcement’s ability to investigate this crime and interact with victims,” said Tom Stone, Executive Director of FBI-LEEDA. “The summits provide law enforcement with the latest techniques and methods used to commit identify theft. From check washing to online account hijacking, thieves are evolving with increasing sophistication, and it is critical that we bring the latest trends to the forefront, enabling law enforcement to successfully investigate and prosecute this crime.”

We hope that the last four years of hard work have made an impact in the nearly 100 communities we’ve visited. To us, identity theft protection isn’t just a service. It’s a complex fight against an ever-evolving crime and educating law-enforcement agencies is just one way we get closer to our goal.