Officials propose drug testing for Utah state employees

State employees might have to pass random drug tests, under rules being considered by state officials as a way to thwart identity theft.

Jeff Herring, executive director of the Utah Department of Human Resource Management, and Kirk Torgensen, chief deputy in the Attorney General's Office, told a legislative committee on Wednesday that the proposed testing would apply to state workers who have access to Utahns' "highly sensitive" personal data.

Data indicate that some methamphetamine abusers are using identity theft to get money for their drug purchases, while meth distributors are using identity theft to generate income to benefit their drug trafficking, he said.

"This electronic identity-theft crime is relatively new, so we're entering a new era of how we have to manage our work force, and I think the time is right to take a look at doing some of this," Herring told the Workforce Services and Community and Economic Development Interim Committee.

Herring said the testing would be purely random, and no agency would determine which staffers are tested. Everyone — from agency executive directors to data-entry personnel — would be subject to the tests, he said. But Torgensen cautioned that not all state workers would be involved — only those with access to Utahns' personal information, such as financial assets, bank accounts, Social Security numbers, birth dates, household composition, home addresses and medical histories.

"All the access that we have, it's kind of like keys out there," he said. "If you've got date of birth, home address, Social Security, you've got the ability to do major damage."

In April, federal officials said a former Department of Workforce Services employee who took applications from people seeking food stamps and other welfare aid worked with three other people to steal the identity of Utah residents and charge tens of thousands of dollars in purchases. Laura Bustamante, 34, of Midvale, was among those charged in the scheme.

The department said at the time that it was the first instance of identity theft by an employee in the department's history, and the legislative committee's co-chairman, Rep. Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan, said Wednesday that he believed it was an "isolated" incident.

But comments by Herring and Torgensen made the issue appear to be more widespread.