Senate panel OKs money for high-tech crime fighters

SB485 would create a nine-member advisory board to work with the Nevada task force for technological crime. That board would be responsible for creating multi-agency task forces in Reno and Las Vegas, and it would be able to hire an executive director and a secretary.

The bill deals with several technology-related offenses such as encryption, use and possession of devices that can intercept cable TV signals, phone slamming and spreading computer viruses.

The measure also would require Internet providers to keep the names and e-mail addresses of their subscribers confidential unless the subscribers OK their release, a provision aimed at cutting down on "spamming," or flooding people with junk e-mail.

Deputy Attorney General Anne Cathcart said the program's cost - estimated at $81,429 for the 1999-2000 fiscal year and $78,572 for the following year - could be paid with part of the $400,000 in federal reimbursement the agency expects for legal services in negotiating the national tobacco settlement.

While the bill was endorsed, some panel members questioned whether the task force should be quartered in the attorney general's office.

"I'm wondering if this wouldn't be better served in the Nevada Division of Investigation or some other law enforcement agency," said Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas.

"I'm wondering if the committee you've set up here is really equipped to deal with these sorts of issues," added Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas. "Do you really have the mechanism to do the things you want to do?"

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