Law enforcement task forces looking for people who circulate child porn on the internet or use the web to entice young people into sexual relationships are looking for some state money. Local and regional sex-offender law enforcement programs are eligible for grants created by the legislature last year. The sponsor of the bill hopes to put three-million dollars into the program this year. Platte County Sheriff’s Captain Paul Currill, with the Western Missouri Cybercrimes Task Force, which works in nine western Missouri counties, says these types of cases “hit the cor of our children” in Missouri. He says 53,000 computers have been identified in Missouri “through various investigative techniques” with known child porn images on them. A spokesman for the Missouri Crimes Against Children Task Force, Lt. Chris Mateja, says the St. Charles County Sheriff’s department and the task force started in 2005 to identify those offering to distribute child porn and have uncovered 61-thousand transfers from 18-thousand computers throughout Missouri. But he says lack of manpower has meant only a few of those cases has been investigated. He hopes the grants will let agencies hire more cybercrimes officers, investigate more cases, and arrest more operators.
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