Oxford News

After a year of not accepting plea bargains in cases involving false identification, the Oxford Police Department has seen little decline in the use of fake IDs.

A news release from the OPD's Investigative Services in unison with the Miami University Police Department and Oxford Twp. Police, announced the policy change stopping the use of plea bargains for identity crimes starting Jan 1, 2006. While the decision originally was made in hopes of reducing the number of fake ID cases, the OPD still receives hundreds of these cases per year.

"We still have as many fake IDs as we've always had," said Detective Sgt. John Buchholz of the OPD, after having finished the first year of not accepting plea bargains to any cases involving possession of false identification or possession of another's identification.

"Fake IDs have not slowed down," Buchholz said, "...but there are no diversions anymore. If you get caught with a fake ID, you're going to plead guilty to something."

Buchholz said each case is looked at differently depending on the circumstances, but the biggest change from the old policy is that suspects no longer have the option of diversion. This means that people caught with false identification will be facing a first-degree misdemeanor charge of some kind.

Two possible charges are categorized as "certain acts prohibited" or "use of criminal tools," the only difference being a six-month driver's license suspension accompanying a "certain acts prohibited" conviction.

Apart from being in legal trouble, the OPD often refers false identification cases involving college students to Miami University's Office of Ethics and Student Conflict Resolution. Formerly known as Judicial Affairs, this office gives students in violation of identification laws an automatic "Code 1: Dishonesty" in accordance to the Code of Student Conduct — a charge that can appear on their transcript.

"It wasn't doing any good when we let people use diversion," Buchholz said. "Our goal is behavior modification."

The increase in possible penalties has since led to a change in behavior of those who are convicted by the OPD. It seems as though individuals charged with use or possession of false identification are learning their lesson.

"There are very few repeat offenders," Buchholz said.

The new policy also demands that those charged with identity crimes must have a clean record for a year in order to get the charge expunged. According to Administrative Lt. Andrew Powers of the MUPD, the old policy allowed for "a good many of these charges to be expunged after just months."

Powers said it is not definitive if the new policy has made an impact in Miami's enforcement of false identification laws; however, the MUPD "doesn't deal with as many fake IDs as the OPD with Uptown bars," Powers said.

"Brickstreet snags a couple dozen (fake IDs) a week," Buchholz said in regards to the cooperation of Uptown businesses with the OPD.

All bars participate in the collection of false identification, Buchholz said, though some are better than others. While the police do not pay the establishments to turn in the fake IDs they collect, Buchholz does know of Uptown businesses that pay their employees for finding fake IDs.

Ultimately the policy change proved to accomplish one goal. It brought consistency to the sentencing in false identification cases, Powers said.

"We tried to standardize to make sure there was consistency in how offenders were treated when there was a fake ID," he said.