ASHEBORO N.C. (ACME NEWS) — At a joint press conference, law enforcement officials from local, state, and federal agencies gathered to announce a new task force and plans for a fusion center in Randolph County, to combat child trafficking and exploitation.
In August, the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office along with multiple other law enfocement agencies conducted ‘Operation Child Predator,’ leading to nineteen sex crime arrets. That operation was eye opening said Randolph County Sheriff Greg Seabolt, “the operation proved that child abuse, trafficking, and exploitation are much more prevalent than most people know or are willing to admit.”
Currently, North Carolina is ranked 9th in the nation for human and sex trafficking. The State Bureau of Investigation (N.C. SBI) predicts that this year alone they will receive more than 25,000 Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) tips. However, with only 250 investigators trained to investigate those tips, it comes out to 108 tips per investigator, added on top of their normal cases.
The press confrence anounced that multiple law enforcment agencies from local, state, and federal levels would make up a new joint task force under the name ‘The Invictus Project,’ to help combat the growing problem of child trafficking and exploitation.
The project is comprised of multiple law enforcment agencies from local, state, and federal levels including County Sheriff’s Offices for Randolph, Forsyth, Alamance, and Davidson, the Randolph County D. A’s office, State Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and other partners like Lantern Rescue. The combined agencies will be working as a task force, sharing resources and expertise, and will be housed in a new Fusion Center located in an undisclosed building located in Randolph County.
Invictus is Latin for “unconquered”
A Fusion Center works like a shared office workspace but for law enforcement. The idea is to bring together law enforcement agencies, investigators, resources, and tools to encourage sharing of information and expertise and provide investigators more imediate access to the tools and technology that might not be available at any single agency in order to solve cases more effectively.
According to officials, the Fusion Center and Task Force combination will provide investigators with a full-time lab staffed with a technician, analyst, and administrative assistant to provide administrative and technological support. While each agency is responsible for providing its own personnel and equipment, Randolph County Commissioners have already approved funding to go towards the Fusion Center.
“This is a technical fight, and this fight is done on forensic side for the most part, and these digital forensic tools are expensive and so when we’re able to bring all of these tools to one location with the expertise that law enforcement personnel already have to be able to collaborate and work together, we just become a more effective fighting force,” said Ray Dawson with Lantern Rescue.
In addition to fielding Cyber tips, the task force will focus on undercover operations to search for online child predators and develop operational plans to interdict predatorial searches for child victims and providing education and training of officers on topics centered around cyber investigations, human trafficking, child exploitation, undercover chat operations, tactics, and more.
“In many cases, persons convicted of child sex offenses admit that they have abused other children. It is only logical to assume that these individuals will continue to abuse children until they are caught. It is therefore imperative that we take a proactive approach to catch these predators and prevent future abuse to every extent possible,” said Randolph County Sheriff Greg Seabolt at the press confrence.
The Invictus Project is a new model for North Carolina. It was the scuess of ‘Operation Child Predator,’ that led law enforcment to realize the serious need for a full-time proactive model partnered with other agencies.
Sheriff Seabolt ended the press confrence with a message: “We want to send a message to all predators out there, all the perverts, that if you come to Randolph County, Alamance County, or any county in the Tirad that they are not welcome. We want to help these kids before it happens, because when it happens, they become victims, and we don’t want any more victims.”
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