Hello Everyone,
Evelyn here,
With a press release from the Office of the Attorney General, Bill McCollum, on the expansion of the CyberCrime Unit in Jacksonville Florida.
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Office of the Attorney General
Bill McCollum
Attorney General of Florida
PRESS RELEASE
October 4, 2007
ATTORNEY GENERAL McCOLLUM OPENS NEWLY EXPANDED CHILD PREDATOR CYBERCRIME UNIT
UNIT IS FIRST OF SEVEN OPENING STATEWIDE TO COMBAT
INCREASING NUMBER OF
CYBERCRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Surrounded by law enforcement officials and child advocates, Attorney General Bill McCollum today hosted the grand opening of the newly expanded Child Predator CyberCrime Unit in Jacksonville. The office will serve as the headquarters for the expanded statewide operations. Six more openings will follow in the Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Myers, Tallahassee, Tampa and Pensacola areas.
“The opening of this expanded unit and the offices to follow around Florida will make our state one of the most aggressive in the nation for tracking down and locking up online child predators,” said Attorney General McCollum. “With increased law enforcement, stricter laws and a comprehensive statewide education effort, we hope to be a model for other states to follow as the nation moves forward to better protect our children.”
The Attorney General’s top budget priority of 2007 was fully funded by the Florida Legislature and signed into law by the Governor, providing $2.3 million to expand the Child Predator CyberCrime Unit throughout Florida. The six-person unit will expand to 56 staff members statewide, providing essential resources for investigating, arresting and prosecuting internet predators and child pornographers.
"I applaud Attorney General Bill McCollum for working to increase the number of Florida's cybercrime fighters. By having more champions involved in the battle to protect Florida's children, more sex offenders will be stopped before they can prey on our children," Governor Charlie Crist said. "Nothing is more important than the safety of Floridians, and we have a duty to protect the children of our state from these predators."
The expansion of the unit will allow the Attorney General’s investigative team and prosecutors to work more closely with local law enforcement agencies around the state. The unit will offer training; support local operations; and provide assistance where the need is great and the resources few.
Originally established in 2005, the unit has been responsible for the arrests of 48 men who possessed, created or distributed child pornography or who sexually solicited children online, some of whom then traveled to meet the person they believed was a child intending to continue the sexual abuse. Current statistics show that more than 77 million children use the internet every day and of those, one in seven between the ages of 10 and 17 will be sexually solicited online. Florida ranks fourth in the nation for the volume of child pornography.
On Monday, the CyberCrimes Against Children Act of 2007 went into effect. The new law substantially increases the penalties for various types of cybercrime and creates a new separate criminal charge against predators who communicate online with a child or someone they believe to be a child and then travel to meet that person for the purpose of further sexually abusing him or her. Individuals who cross circuit lines to meet their intended victims are often prosecuted by attorneys with the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution in coordination with the CyberCrime Unit.
In addition to enhancing penalties for child predators who travel to meet their victims, the law includes new penalties for “grooming,” a behavior which occurs when internet child predators lie about their age to entice their victims. Florida is currently the only state in the nation with a law specifically targeting grooming.
More information on the Attorney General’s cybercrime initiative is available online at http://www.safeflorida.net/safesurf.
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Evelyn out.
