ATTORNEY GENERAL KING, ALABAMA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, MADISON SHERIFF ANNOUNCE PROGRAM TO FIGHT INTERNET CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN

The Alabama Attorney General issued the following news release:

Attorney General Troy King, Alabama Bureau of Investigation Chief, Major Ken Hallford and Madison County Sheriff Blake Dorning today announced that the Attorney General's Office is increasing the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force effort in North Alabama. The Attorney General's Office will have an agent in north Alabama, who will work out of the Madison County Sheriff's Office, and two other Attorney General agents in Montgomery who are assigned to the ICAC program. The ICAC program is administered in Alabama by the ABI and funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.

"Our mission is simple: to protect Alabama's children from sex predators who would use the internet to stalk and exploit them," said Attorney General King. "When a predator seeks to harm a child, our agents will find them and will carefully build cases to put these criminals behind bars, where they cannot reach and hurt innocent children anymore."

ABI Chief Hallford stated, "We are charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with creating 30 satellite agencies around the state to combat internet crimes against children. The ABI is working with state and local law enforcement as a team to protect the children of Alabama from these disgusting criminals. With the cooperation of the three United States Attorneys of Alabama and the state Attorney General on board, the ability for full prosecution is in place."

Investigators working these cases will respond to cybertips of suspected crimes against children that were reported to internet service providers, and will conduct specialized undercover work in cooperation with other members of the ICAC task force. Computers and equipment are provided through grant funding for all of the investigators working with the ICAC program stationed in the state, and specialized training will be available for all agents.

"This is an excellent opportunity for all the law enforcement community in Madison County to work together to locate, identify and apprehend those individuals who would harm our children," said Sheriff Dorning.

The Internet Crimes Against Children program is a national network of 46 coordinated local task forces dedicated to proactive investigations to fight the online sexual exploitation of children by predators. Alabama's task force is composed of 18 city and county law enforcement agencies that work in conjunction with the ABI on undercover child solicitation and child pornography investigations. The ICAC program is funded through grants from the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention in the U.S. Department of Justice.

ICAC was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims. It is reported that more than 30 million children in the United States use the internet, that one in four who use the internet regularly had an unwanted exposure to sexually explicit pictures, and that approximately one in five received a sexual solicitation or approach.

"I want to thank the Alabama Bureau of Investigation for its role in administering this vital program, and the U.S. Department of Justice for providing grant funds to support our participation," said Attorney General King. "I also want to thank Sheriff Blake Dorning for agreeing to host our north Alabama agent within the Madison County Sheriff's Office. Nothing we do is more important than fighting the evil that preys upon children. The internet is a valuable resource, but when it is abused by sexual predators, our children are in great peril. The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force will make the children of Alabama safer."Contact: Joy Patterson, 334/242-7491; Suzanne Webb, 334/242-7351.

Joy Patterson, 334/242-7491; Suzanne Webb, 334/242-7351.