Up until now, the first three digits of a Social Security number formed a code that was sometimes helpful in verifying a suspect’s story as to his background and determining the validity of a Social Security card.
These three digits (officially called the “area number”) signified the state or territory where the subject was living when the SSN was first issued. Numbers 050 through 134, for example, were assigned to New York, 509-515 to Kansas, 580-584 to Puerto Rico, and so on.
Beginning on June 25, new SSNs will no longer follow that geographic encoding. The first three digits of new cards will be randomized, with no inherent meaning. Older numbers will stay the same as they are and, therefore, will still reflect the previous code.
For a list of existing codes and their related locales, see: www.usatrace.com/ssnchart.html. These may still be useful when dealing with suspects who hold older SSNs.
Thanks to police attorney Richard Crites of Springfield, Mo., for alerting us to this change.
