By Kristal Dixon
Cherokee Tribune Staff Writer
Cherokee County is one of Georgia's "top producing affiliates" when it comes to netting online crimes against children, according to an official with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Metro Atlanta and Georgia also are highly ranked when it comes to the number of solved Internet crimes, said Special Agent in Charge John Whitaker of the GBI's High Technology Investigations Unit.
For calendar year 2007, Georgia had more arrests than any other task force, and since 2002, the state has been "number nine or higher in the number of cybertips received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children," Whitaker said.
In 2006, Georgia was number three, and in 2007, it ranked number nine.
In 2007, 103 arrests were made using the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Through August of this year, 67 arrests were made.
"It is definitely a statewide problem," Whitaker said. "I would definitely say that Cherokee County is one of our top five producing affiliates."
Arrests in Internet crimes in Cherokee seem to be stabilized.
The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office has reported that only seven arrests have been made so far this year. The department made the same number of arrests for all of last year.
Sgt. Jay Baker, public information officer with the sheriff's office, said many of the suspects being investigated in Cherokee live in other parts of the country and are referred to other agencies.
Officials in Cherokee are working in a "proactive mode" on these types of crimes.
As a cooperative member of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force , the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office has three officers that have received training and are running ICAC investigations, said Capt. Edward Lacey of the Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Division.
Two of those officers have received additional "advanced training that allows them to use new technology to focus more on local offenders in possession of pornography depicting children," he said.
"Like officers in patrol cars, riding the roads in attempts to suppress crime, we have officers in chat rooms and other places on the Internet, patrolling for online crime," Capt. Lacey said.
The ICAC Task Force was created by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1998 to help state and local law enforcement agencies enhance their investigations of Internet crimes against minors.
The program targets offenders who use the Internet, online communications systems or other forms of computer technology to sexually exploit children.
A suspect can be charged with Internet-related crimes including sexual exploitation of children, electronically furnishing obscene material to minors, obscene Internet contact or obscene telephone contact.
The task force, which is funded by the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, comprises 59 regional agencies.
The GBI joined the task force in 2003.
In Georgia, about 75 other agencies are partnering with the GBI in its task force.
About 150 officers in Georgia have been trained in the program.
Whitaker said once an agency signs a memo of understanding with the state, it is signed up for training classes.
When an agency sends personnel to the state's Investigative Techniques and Undercover classes, officers are then provided with a computer for investigations.
Officers also are taught classes in cybertip investigations, Internet Safety Train the Trainer and peer-to-peer investigations.
The state also is working to bring in classes about how to seize cell phones, how to work the forensics on cell phones and how to work MySpace investigations and forensics, Whitaker said.
The program has been a great asset for the partnership between the different levels of law enforcement throughout the state because officers sworn into the program "are very dedicated to what they do," Whitaker said.
Sheriff Roger Garrison agreed, adding that the program has served as a networking tool agencies can use to share information, which the sheriff said was the way of the future.
"More and more of law enforcement (agencies) will cross jurisdictional lines," he said.
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Posted Comments
I think this is great. Keep up the good work. We need to get serious about keeping child predators away from our children. I think they should be lined up and shot personally.
I have noticed that when someone writes about the storm trooper tactics of the Holly Springs Police Department, the comments are seldom published. These people are not above the law, although they might think they are. The reason I write this is because the easiest way to cause someone a world of trouble is to falesely accuse him or her of sexaul abusing a child. If this happens in Holly Springs, you cannot expect a fair and impartial investigation. Actually, that applies to about any alledged crime committed in Holly Springs. I agree, child predaters should be put away, but there is such a thing as being innocent until proven guilty.
There have been many civil rights abuses by the Holly Springs Police Department. Have the PD also done away with the Freedom of the Press amendment and the Freedom of Speech and this is the reason the Tribune cannot publish anything detrimental about the Holly Springs Police?