From staff reports
MONTGOMERY — The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) unit is not a new unit to the state of Alabama, but under a new consolidation of state-level law enforcement in January 2015, the unit has become part of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s Fusion Center.
This particular unit focuses on technology-based child sexual exploitation, including the distribution of child pornography and the solicitation of children for immoral purposes.
During the first eight months as part of the Fusion Center, the unit has executed 46 search warrants and arrested 21 offenders. They have also conducted training or public outreach events for more than 400 attendees.
Secretary of Law Enforcement Spencer Collier said, “ALEA’s ICAC Unit is focused on locating and arresting predators who use digital media and devices to prey on and victimize our children.
“The ICAC Unit is comprised of nine seasoned investigators with more than 200 years of law enforcement experience, supported by two forensic technology examiners and a criminal intelligence analyst, who are, and will continue to be relentless in the investigation of offenders who sexually exploit children. This specialized unit demonstrates the effectiveness of the consolidation of state-level law enforcement resources.”
Many of the cases investigated by the unit are received from a CyberTipline established by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) that is operated in partnership with the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, US Postal Inspection Service and several other entities.
Between July 2014 and July 2015, the ALEA ICAC Unit received 1,259 of these CyberTipline reports from NCMEC.