History of CATCH

San Diego County has enjoyed significant growth and recognition due to the technology infrastructure that has developed here and was recently dubbed, "the new wireless valley" and a "technology hub." This is a reflection of the changing face of our region's economy and the welcome presence of innovative companies comprising our technology industry.

An important component in reshaping San Diego into a technology hub has been the cooperation between our region's corporations and law enforcement. The phenomenal growth and success of the local High-Tech Crime Investigators' Association (HTCIA) chapter is a proud achievement for the region's technology industry and law enforcement and is an example of the benefit to our citizens resulting from private industry and public government partnerships.

Unfortunately, accompanying the benefits of a thriving technology-rich society is the accompanying increased criminal activity as criminals use technology to devise new schemes and expand old ones. Such criminality impacts both the profitability for technology industry and the safety and security for the individual citizen. A state sponsored study released in February 2000 found that a conservative estimate of the impact of technology crime in California over the past few years was $6.5 billion dollars in industry losses and $358 million dollars in tax revenue losses.

To address the increasing impact of technology crimes, the law enforcement community has formed CATCH, a local, state, and federal task force dedicated to investigating and prosecuting criminals who commit crimes using or targeting high technology. CATCH is comprised of investigators from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. CATCH benefits from a vertical prosecutor assigned 7/24 dedicated solely to assisting the task force investigators with legal issues and to vertically prosecuting all state cases arising from the investigations. CATCH includes designated prosecutors to vertically prosecute federal and local cases. Becoming operational on June 1, 2000, CATCH joined a statewide and nationwide network of task forces dedicated to battling criminals who attempt to exploit the technology industry or infrastructure for criminal gain.