The University of Arizona Police Department is assisting the Arizona Department of Public Safety as part of a task force cracking down on identity theft.

Officers from the combined task force were on campus on Tuesday conducting investigative interviews regarding identity theft and the use of false identification, according to a press release from Arizona DPS. Agencies participating in the task force include UAPD, Arizona DPS’ Gang and Immigration Enforcement department, Tucson Police Department, Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control, the Arizona attorney general’s office, Arizona Department of Transportation, Department of Homeland Security and the Border Enforcement Security Task Force.

The UA had been flagged as an area that has high incident reports of false identification that has resulted in identity theft.

“Our role is to support (the investigation), to facilitate the investigation while they are on campus,” said Sgt. Juan Alvarez, public information officer for UAPD.

Identity theft affects thousands of Arizonans each year, according to Arizona Assistant Attorney General Michael Jette.

“This joint task force operation will hopefully impress upon people that possession and use of a false identification is against the law and will be prosecuted,” Jette said in the press release.

A power outage that started at about 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning left 4,071 customers without power. According to Joseph Barrios, a spokesman for Tucson Electric Power Company, the outage happened when a piece of equipment in a substation serving the downtown area failed, and was fixed by about 8:45 a.m. The area affected was west of the university, with Grant Road to the north, Interstate 10 to the west, Alameda Street to the south and Park Avenue to the east. Very few UA buildings were affected.