Editorial: Identity stolen? Be patient?

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 | 7:21 a.m.

O n the Nevada attorney general's Web site, an icon labeled "Identity Theft Passport" is there for the clicking.

Inside there is a description of how the program works, along with an overview, which states: "The Nevada attorney general now has a new way to help victims of identity theft ... Beginning January 1st, 2006, the program gives ... victims a new way to demonstrate to creditors and police that their identity has been stolen."

In writing about a victim of identity theft last month, we said Nevada was performing an important public service by offering this program.

We spoke too soon.

Las Vegas Sun reporter Timothy Pratt disclosed Tuesday that although the program was approved by the 2005 Legislature, and although the attorney general's Web site implies that it has been ongoing for 1 1/2 years, no one has been served by it.

Pratt reported that about 300 people have applied for the Identity Theft Passport, described as an official state document that can quickly clear the name of an identity theft victim whose ID is being questioned. Yet not a single applicant has gotten any results.

This is because the Legislature did not appropriate any money to fund the program. The attorney general's office managed to scrape together $25,000 to buy some computer equipment and write some rules for the program, but it is still telling applicants to be patient.

"We have been explaining to folks that the program is not in full effect," Dale Liebherr, an investigator with the attorney general's office who works part time as the director of the identity theft passport program, told Pratt.

Random checks of similar programs in other states revealed them to be up and running. Nevada, the No. 2 state in the country for incidences of identity theft, should have its program working, too - especially since the program is identified that way on the attorney general's Web site.