Internet Crimes Against Children Program

In September 1998, with 10 awards to State and local law enforcement agencies across the Nation, OJJDP began a national program to counter the emerging threat of offenders using the Internet or other online technology to sexually exploit children. Designed to encourage communities to adopt a multidisciplinary, multijurisdictional response to this threat, the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program ensures that participating State and local law enforcement agencies can acquire the necessary knowledge, equipment, and personnel resources to prevent, interdict, or investigate ICAC offenses. Under this program, ICAC task forces serve as regional sources of prevention, education, and investigative expertise to provide assistance to parents, teachers, law enforcement, and professionals working on child victimization issues.

Policing in cyberspace presents new and unique challenges for American law enforcement. In cyberspace, traditional boundaries are ignored and the usual constraints of time, place, and distance lose their controlling influence. Because very few cases start and end within the same jurisdiction, nearly all ICAC investigations involve multiple jurisdictions and require extensive multiagency collaboration. However, multiagency collaboration is challenging. Federal, State, and local law enforcement organizations have legitimate, understandable concerns about initiating cases based on information that may have been gathered through inappropriate conduct or investigative techniques by officers of another agency.

OJJDP has established operational and investigative standards for the ICAC Task Force Program through a collaborative process with the 10 original ICAC Task Force agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); U.S. Customs Service (USCS); U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS); U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS); and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). These standards are designed to foster information sharing, coordinate investigations, avoid duplication or disruption of ongoing investigations, ensure the probative quality of undercover operations, and facilitate interagency case referrals through the standardization of investigative practices. Collaborative undercover operations, when properly executed and documented according to the ICAC Task Force Program standards, can collect virtually unassailable evidence and, most important, allow law enforcement to bring a case before a suspect can victimize a child.

OJJDP's ICAC Task Force Program is administered through a shared management system that combines a national perspective with the local values of participating communities to address coordination and communication concerns related to ICAC investigations. OJJDP has established a review board, composed of law enforcement managers and prosecutors from participating agencies, to assist in the administration of this program. The board, while primarily responsible for reviewing undercover operations for compliance with the ICAC Task Force Program standards, plays a critical role in assessing the needs of the field and in formulating policy for the national program. Representatives from the FBI, USCS, USPIS, and CEOS serve as technical advisers to the board.

In addition, OJJDP, in consultation with Federal law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies and NCMEC, has developed a certification course for agencies participating in the program. The course prepares ICAC Task Force investigators and managers to develop policies and employ proven investigative procedures in response to computer-facilitated sexual exploitation of children.

OJJDP anticipates making 20 new awards under the ICAC Task Force Program by April 2000, bringing the total number of ICAC Task Forces nationwide to 30. For more information on the program, visit OJJDP's Web site or contact the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse at 800-638-8736, 301-519-5212 (fax), or askncjrs@ncjrs.org .

Overview of the Portable Guides to Investigating Child Abuse: Update 2000	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • February 2000