The Iinternet Crimes Against Children Task Force has been a part of the Corpus Christi Police Department for the last two decades. One of 61 units across the United States that "are continually engaged in proactive and reactive investigations and prosecutions of persons involved in child abuse and exploitation involving the I?nternet," states the Internet Crimes Against Children government website.
The task force in Corpus Christi work diligently around the clock to track down any of these predators that may be trying to contact your children. This unit works with other agencies such as Homeland Security and the FBI for numerous cases.
CCPD’s ICAC Captain Donald Moore says, "Predators are always looking for a way to contact children."
When asked if this is a heavy related problem in Corpus Christi, Capt. Moore says, "unfortunately, the case load of these types of cases are not decreasing, again with technology it’s increasing, and we’re doing our best to put as many predators in prison as possible because some of these are the worst of the worst individuals and we’re gonna do what we can to make sure that they’re not preying on our kids and our community."
Investigations for predator crimes involve a heavy amount of research through videos, pictures, and social media sites. There is a team of investigators that work specifically with these kind of cases and their main focus is finding the evidence that shows exploitation or any kind of predator crime.
One investigator has been with the task force for 7 years, she did not give her identity for confidential reasons. For this investigator, she feels she can walk into work everyday knowing that they are putting away the bad guys.
"For us we try to keep in perspective that the end goal is to make sure that we get the predator off the streets so they don’t harm another child. Or, actually touch a child, sometimes they haven’t yet touched a child, but to prevent them from doing that," states the investigator.
Tips for parents to protect their child from internet safety:
- Capt. Moore says keep tabs on your child’s social media accounts and mobile devices, check on them regularly
- set house rules
- teach them to protect their privacy
For more tips you can follow this older article on our KRIS 6 News website
