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Division of Criminal Investigation
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Michael Myszewski, Administrator • Biography
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Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Unit
An Overview
In September 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice began a national Internet
Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force program to counter the emerging threat
of offenders using the Internet or other online technology to sexually exploit
children. The purpose of the program is to help state and local law enforcement
agencies develop an effective response to cyber enticement and child pornography
cases. Under this program, regional ICAC task forces serve as sources of
prevention, education and investigative expertise to provide assistance to
parents, teachers, law enforcement and other professionals working on child
victimization issues.
The ICAC Task Forces are funded by a grant from the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Wisconsin's ICAC Task Force has been
administered through the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal
Investigation since its inception in the spring of 1999.
Policing in cyberspace presents unique challenges for American law
enforcement. Very few cases start and end within the same jurisdiction, and
therefore nearly all ICAC investigations require extensive multi-agency
collaboration. The special agents assigned to Wisconsin's ICAC Task Force have
multi-jurisdictional authority as they investigate and prosecute those
individuals who use the Internet to exploit children.
The primary responsibilities of Wisconsin's ICAC Task Force include:
- Conducting investigations and prosecuting offenders.
- Providing investigative and prosecutorial assistance to police
agencies and prosecutors (e.g., forensic analysis of computers seized as
evidence).
- Providing training for law enforcement officers and prosecutors.
- Providing training for parents, teachers and other community
members and distributing informational materials to ensure that children,
parents, and other individuals and organizations are well-acquainted with the
issues in this area, including potential problems and the availability of
assistance.
- Fostering continual statewide and regional coordination,
collaboration, information sharing, networking and service integration.
For further information about the national ICAC Task Force Program see:
OJJDP: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
OJJDP Bulletin: Protecting Children in Cyberspace
Summary
- Wisconsin's ICAC Task Force is led by the Wisconsin Department of
Justice (DOJ) and is comprised of DOJ special agents and detectives from local
police and sheriff's departments. DOJ partners with a
dozen law enforcement groups from around the state to ensure the safety of
children online.
- DOJ ICAC agents work hard on a daily basis to achieve these
successes and help keep Wisconsin kids safer and parents better informed.
- DOJ has sponsored child Internet safety public awareness campaigns,
seminars and agent presentations, as well as conducting extensive ongoing
investigations and enforcement efforts statewide.
- DOJ is fully committed to building on the success of its
investigative efforts, and to its ongoing work with local Wisconsin law
enforcement to keep our children safe.
- The DOJ ICAC Task Force is funded in part by a federal grant from
the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
- Only 10% of online child exploitation is reported to law
enforcement. You can help us protect our children on the Internet by reporting
child exploitation incidents or websites to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children at www.cybertipline.com.
- If a child is in immediate danger, always contact local law
enforcement first.
Major Cases
- A seventh-grade football coach in Waukesha, Wisconsin, was arrested
on charges of possession of child pornography following the execution of a
search warrant at his residence. Additional investigation revealed that he was
also showing child pornography on his computer to three 12-year-old boys during
sleepovers at his apartment. DCI reopened and investigated a 1997 sexual assault
case where it was alleged the suspect assaulted a boy while he was a counselor
at a group home. In April 2005, the suspect was sentenced to 20 years in prison
for repeated sexual assault of a child, possession of child pornography, and
three counts of exposing a child to harmful materials. He will also serve 20
years of extended probation after his release.
- A father learned his 13-year-old daughter was receiving sexually
explicit emails from a stranger. A DCI agent took over the girl's online
identity and continued the relationship with the stranger, during which activity
the agent was solicited for sex, prostitution and to pose for and manufacture
child pornography. The suspect was arrested following an investigation on a
warrant charging him with one count of attempted solicitation of a child for
prostitution, one count of exposing a child to harmful materials, and eight
counts of attempted exposure of a child to harmful materials.
- A mother reported that her 13-year-old daughter was involved in a
relationship with someone she thought was a 23-year-old man from Milwaukee. The
mother learned of the relationship after discovering sexually explicit instant
messages sent to her daughter from the man, using an online alias. DCI obtained
subpoenas for the man's AOL and Road Runner accounts, and learned that he was
actually a 33-year-old man from Milwaukee. The 13-year-old girl admitted meeting
the man on several occasions over the summer outside her middle school, and then
being taken into a wooded area. After the man was identified, local police
recognized him as the subject of another ongoing investigation, involving the
sexual assault of a 17-year-old Waukesha County girl he had also met online. He
was sentenced to four years in prison plus ten years extended supervision for
his conviction of first-degree sexual assault of the girl.
Statistics
- Total arrests for 2005 were 120 --- exceeding
a previous national ICAC task force record.
- 60 arrests in the reporting period from January 1
to June 30, 2006
- 134 subpoenas obtained in the reporting period from
January 1 to June 30, 2006
- 82 search warrants executed in the reporting period
from January 1 to June 30, 2006
- Wisconsin's ICAC Task Force Unit provided specialized
training for 570 law enforcement officers, prosecutors and other
professionals during the reporting period from January 1 to June 30,
2006, as well as sponsoring community outreach presentations and
public events that reached more than 26,000 people around the state.
- Statistics have once again increased over the previous
reporting cycle, primarily because of assertive investigative
techniques.
Training
Since its inception, the Wisconsin ICAC Task Force has trained
over 50,000 law enforcement officers, parents and children about the
program's mission and Internet safety.
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