Private information often finds its way onto public documents, which has at least one lawmaker concerned about identity theft.

Rep. Terry Hayes, D-Buckfield, has submitted a bill to remove Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank account information and dates of birth from documents found at county registries of deeds in an effort to combat identity theft. That may include mortgage documents, property liens and divorce papers involving property.

Hayes said the concerns were brought to her by officials in several counties. The bill, if passed, would hold the filer, such as a mortgage lender, responsible for keeping personal information off the public documents.

Jane Carpenter, identity theft specialist for the Maine Attorney General’s Office, said it is a trend sweeping through many states to redact personal information from public records, especially as they move to online databases.

The office, she said, applauds anything that makes private information more private.

According to a Federal Trade Commission report issued in January 2006, Maine was the fifth-lowest state in terms of reported identity theft cases, with 37.2 per 100,000. Arizona, the state with the most, had 156.9 per 100,000, according to the report.

However, identity theft is drastically underreported in Maine, Carpenter said.

The University of Southern Maine also studied the issue. In the Maine Crime Victimization Report issued in March 2007, 10.4 percent of the 803 people studied reported being a victim of identity theft.

“It’s definitely a problem everyone should be concerned about,” Carpenter said.

The county registries hold information pertaining to real estate. Tina Chouinard, Androscoggin County register of deeds, said the office hasn’t seen as much personal information on public documents recently as it did in the past.

The Internal Revenue Service would often include Social Security numbers on liens to identify people, and banks would include account numbers on mortgages, Chouinard said.

Since the office started putting documents online in the past few years, Chouinard said it started notifying filers that the registry would not accept documents with personal information on them.

The concern about identity theft has escalated since public documents have begun to be filed in public online databases.

“You no longer have to go to the registry; you can just search online,” Hayes said.