Plenty of con men but too few investigators - 19 Action News|Cleveland, OH|News, Weather, Sports

Plenty of con men but too few investigators

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CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) -

The holiday shopping season often brings out more identity thieves and con men, but we found only a small number of those financial crimes get solved.

19 Action News found as of a month ago, the Cleveland Police Financial Crimes Unit took in 1553 reports, but only 60 cases had been cleared by arrests.  Another 140 had been cleared for other reasons -- false report, crime unfounded, etc. 

We also noticed that unit only has a few people, four detectives and a sergeant to handle all of those cases.  And the investigations can be complex.  The unit recently cracked an international scam targeting a former nun on the west side.

The Cleveland Police union would like more investigators assigned, but at the same time, the murder rate is soaring.

We've also seen a spike in financial crimes in some suburbs--especially those with busy retail areas.

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