I just got off the phone w/ our chief of police. I let him know about the changes due October 28th. He was very thankful for the call. I have also contacted our county sheriff. These folks are going to need to make changes in the way they approach forgery cases. The phone call gives them a head start and it is good pr.

I'm in Louisiana, and I contacted our state banking association (LBA) and informed them of the check 21 changes, and asked them to notify the offices of the district attornies in our state. Our DAs are very good about pursuing forgery cases and NSF cases, but only work with the original items. They do not work with copies. The LBA has addressed this, and most have agreed to change their policies.

The General Counsel for the Kentucky Bankers Association provided member banks with a letter to forward to their local attorneys and judges. It was on KBA letterhead and written in a way as to be credible to lawyers. It was a lot smarter than expecting banks to persuade local lawyers that they really did know what they were talking about after October 28. I contacted the chairman of an annual CLE seminar for bank counsel and encouraged him to put Check 21 on the agenda for that program and he took some pains to do so.

One of the basic concepts in public relations is that you have a lot of separate "publics." It's important to communicate with customers, but there are others whom you have to make certain understand what is about to happen.

A while ago there was a Powerpoint presentation posted on BOL that could be shared with law enforcement officials regarding Check 21. Here is a link to it. http://www.bankersonline.com/check21/check21_fraud.ppt

This is something you may want to share with them.

Has anyone invited law enforcement to your training? We are planning to invite a representative of each police/sherrif's department to ours. I have explained to them that the training will be from a "banker's" viewpoint, but that some information could be beneficial to them. We have had positive feedback. I would love to hear from anyone who has included law enforcement and see how your training went.