Cyber crimes funding to pay for equipment, training

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- The recent renewal of the grant funding for the Southeast Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force will make equipment upgrades and more training possible as officers continue their fight against Internet crime.

The SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force, based at the Poplar Bluff Police Department, received a grant totaling $105,206 to continue its effort to fight online criminals who often seek to entice children and deal in child pornography.

Founded in January 2007, the local task force is one of 14 multi-jurisdictional task forces receiving grant awards of $1,516,702 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Justice Assistance Grant program.

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department's first report to Congress ranked Missouri's effort among the leaders of the 59 task force units surveyed nationally, including first in computer forensics with 1,441 computer examinations, second in arrests at 337 and second in officers trained with 5,810 officers.

"Nothing is more important than protecting Missouri's children from predators who prey online and these grants will help ensure that those efforts remain strong and well-funded," said Department of Public Safety Director John M. Britt. "I am particularly impressed by the number of arrests Missouri's cyber crimes investigators have been able to make, their professionalism and their recognition by the U.S. Justice Department as being among the nation's leaders."

Locally, the grant money will be used for additional equipment, as well as "updating existing equipment, which costs money," said Scott Phelps, a full-time investigator with the task force. The money also will be used to pay for training, he said.

Within the last year, Phelps said, officers served several search warrants within the task force's region, with the majority being executed in counties outside of Butler.

While originally comprised of nine agencies, the task force now has 16 participating counties. They are: Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Carter, Dunklin, Madison, Mississippi, New Madrid, Oregon, Pemiscot, Perry, Ripley, Scott, St. Francois, Stoddard and Wayne.

Phelps said the task force pretty well now covers the entire Southeast Missouri region, but some of the counties don't call much.

"We've assisted numerous other agencies with forensics on electronic devices," such as cellular telephones, Phelps said.

Last year, Phelps said, task force members also presented Internet safety/educational programs to more than 3,700 students within several school districts across Southeast Missouri.

Phelps said officers still deal with computer-related investigations; however, mobile telephones are one of "our biggest issues because kids today are younger and younger (with phones), and a lot have smartphones (which) basically do what a computer can do."

According to Phelps, young people taking pictures on their phones and sending them back and forth is becoming a huge problem.

Also becoming an increasing problem are the social networking sites, such as Facebook, said Phelps.

Anyone using those types of sites need to "do a better job of protecting their vital information, which includes their password," Phelps said. " … Our priority has been and always will be child pornography.

"Trying to retrieve Facebook for someone takes (time) away from what our priority is. The No. 1 goal is to catch online predators and things of that nature."

Specializing in crimes against children, task force members may be called upon to investigate mobile devices in connection with many other crimes, such as homicides and burglaries to see who has been in contact with the victim and/or suspect, he said.

Electronic devices, Phelps said, are connected to "pretty much every crime," not counting the fraud cases.

Phelps expects the mobile phone problems to increase as schools resume classes this month, and students group together and communicate more.

Members of the task force, Phelps said, are available to conduct programs on Internet/mobile phone safety for schools, parents, teachers or civic organizations. For more information or to set up a program, call 573-686-8034.

Pertinent address:

Poplar Bluff, MO