By Sam Borsato - @BorsatoSam on Twitter

Internet child exploitation cases on the rise, more strain on investigators

Nov 30, 2016 | 6:16 PM

LETHBRIDGE – User-friendly social media and communication methods are proving to make it more difficult for investigators to deal with child predators, according to the southern Alberta branch of the ALERT Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) team.
 
Constable Jason Richmond, from the Lethbridge Police Service, made a presentation during Wednesday’s (Nov. 30) Police Commission meeting that highlighted what lengths the ICE team really goes to to ensure children are safe.
 
He first noted that there are eight southern Alberta investigators covering peer-to-peer, undercover and luring and possession cases, with assistance from seven digital forensic examiners. Peer-to-peer investigators, which encompasses the Operation ICE Storm teams, target those who trade child pornography on established networks, while covert investigators are the ones on chat sites setting up face-to-face meetings with predators.
 
They receive assignments from several sources, like the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children based in the United States, Cybertip, the RCMP National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre, Homeland Security and other local law enforcement agencies.
 
During his presentation, Constable Richmond noted some alarming trends in child pornography and luring related cases. “Unfortunately, with social media applications becoming more prevalent, people with predatory behaviour may be using them because of the ease of using them. So, we’ve noticed that in the last few years our case load has definitely went up.”
 
He added that there’s been a spike in self-produced images from children in the age of the “selfie”.
 
In 2014, ICE recorded 343 files where 214 warrants were executed, 298 criminal charges laid and 109 victims identified. That’s compared to 2015 with 306 files, 201 warrants, 262 charges and 142 identified victims.
 
This year, a total of 27 luring cases and 111 child porn cases have gone on the record. There’s been 170 criminal charges, 38 of which were from Lethbridge alone, and 119 victims identified.
 
Just over the past 90 days, more than 300 internet addresses have accessed child pornography in Lethbridge.
 
Richmond clarified that victims could be from anywhere across North America, and not all files are recorded to the ICE database.
 
However, those figures could be even greater, with Richmond explaining that there are still a lot of victims that feel ashamed or embarrassed to come forward to police.
 
“Victims need to know there’s going to be support there for them,” he stressed. “There’s going to be family support, there’s going to be community support. Lethbridge Police and the victim services unit are at their disposal.”
 
Richmond noted that a typical investigation can take upwards of three months to fully complete, and the job is only becoming more difficult. He says the ICE team is specialized in the internet, but new case law and legal requirements create a lot of “work around” for them.
 
“There’s new apps created every day… We need to be familiar with those apps, and so do parents… But it takes continual training because there’s new things every single day.”
 
Lethbridge Councillor Liz Iwaskiw, who is a member of the Police Commission, brought up some concern about mental health supports for ICE investigators. But Constable Richmond assured her that they have psychologists available to them, and must go through evaluations every six months to help them deal with the difficult cases they’re handed.