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PrintThe new Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force announced Wednesday it has received an $8,000 grant to help buy equipment to combat what the Boone County Sheriff’s Department has called an explosion of Internet crime.
Although the task force will focus mostly on Internet crimes against children, like enticement and pornography, it will also investigate and prosecute identity theft and fraud in mid-Missouri.
The initiator of the task force, Detective Andy Anderson of the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, said it is hard to estimate the frequency of Internet and computer crimes but their growth is obvious.
“These types of crimes are highly unreported both nationally and locally, but we hear about this kind of stuff every day,” Anderson said.
Anderson said it was too soon to say exactly how the grant money would be spent.
The task force was established on Jan. 1 and will be made up of representatives of law enforcement agencies and prosecuting attorneys from Boone, Callaway, Cole, Cooper, Randolph and Audrain counties. For the first six months, it will focus on training task force members in detecting computer crimes and conducting forensic examinations of computers.
But task force members are already investigating such crimes.
“We are working numerous undercover cases involving obscenity, child enticement and other crimes.” Anderson said.
Task force members will also visit schools, religious organizations, civic and PTA groups and other community organizations to help educate both parents and children about the dangers of the Internet and what to do if someone approaches a child inappropriately.
The task force was “a perfect match” for the Boone Electric Community Trust, said Jessica Spencer, communications specialist for Boone Electric Cooperative, in a news release. “(The task force’s) efforts will improve the quality of life for those living in the mid-Missouri area,” Spencer said.
The trust is funded by unclaimed capital credits and customers of Boone Electric Cooperative who round up their payments, according to the release.
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