AG heartened cybercrimes unit to endure

McDaniel proud he targeted sex predators of children

As attorney general, Dustin McDaniel has challenged payday lenders, consumer scam artists, pharmaceutical companies and banks.

But over the past three years, predators who prey on children have climbed his list of adversaries.

The Arkansas attorney general's office's cybercrimes unit, created by McDaniel in 2011, investigates the distribution, use and possession of child pornography across the state.

A former Jonesboro police officer, legislator and practicing attorney, the two-term Democrat will return in January to Jonesboro to practice law after completing two terms as the state's top attorney.

But the unit he launched will continue to hunt for child predators. McDaniel's Republican successor has promised to keep the small team of investigators and the network of sophisticated computers they use to pinpoint criminals.

"A legacy is for someone other than me to evaluate and decide. But the things that I am most proud of, the things I have spent the most time on, are things that essentially deal with cops and kids," McDaniel said. "Whether it's law enforcement or education or child protections ... those are things I've focused on for the entire time I've been in public life."

Added McDaniel: "The [cybercrimes unit] has become a standout law enforcement agency on [child pornography cases]. Looking on it, [the unit is one of] the things I'm most proud of."

In 2010, McDaniel won re-election, and establishing a cybercrimes division similar to those in Texas, Mississippi and Kentucky was one of his top priorities.

McDaniel's office was granted law enforcement authority after the 2009 legislative session.

The money to launch the program came from a pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly, which had marketed the anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa to kids without federal approval, agreed to pay Arkansas $18.5 million. McDaniel used about $500,000 of that to start the unit.

McDaniel's office purchased computers and software, and McDaniel recruited top forensic investigators from other states to put together a task force.

"It seemed to me that kids should be the beneficiaries of the money," McDaniel said. "I found the best people in the country and brought them to Arkansas."

One of about 40 state, local and federal agency members of the state's Internet Crimes Against Children task force, the cybercrime team isn't the state's only resource to combat child pornography.

Whereas many of the partners -- such as the Little Rock Police Department, Jonesboro Police Department and the Benton County sheriff's office -- are constrained by jurisdiction, the cybercrimes unit has an entire state to police.

Members of the state's task force, which is administrated by the Arkansas State Police, are able to track each other's investigations, share information and ensure that there is no overlap in their work, according to state police officials.

McDaniel said he wanted his investigators to make themselves available to smaller law enforcement agencies that lacked the resources for complicated investigations as well as focus on more rural and isolated areas in the state.

"I wanted them to find someone who thinks they're safe because he's tucked away in the Ozarks or in the Delta and show them there's nowhere they can be safe if they're going to prey on our kids," McDaniel said. "Every time those images are viewed or traded those children are re-victimized in a way and other children are placed at risk."

The investigations, McDaniel said, take more than clicking a mouse. Relying on computer-based information is only the start of an investigation, one that can often require stakeouts and other "old-fashioned" police work and partnerships with local law enforcement agencies.

So far, special agents with McDaniel's office have made 49 arrests; 17 of those arrests have cases pending in court. The other 32 resulted in convictions totaling 1,731.5 years of prison time, according to state officials.

In 19 of those arrests, suspects were "found to have either have had a live juvenile victim or had previous arrests for sexual crimes with live victims," said McDaniel's spokesman, Aaron Sadler.

Although the founder and steward of the online investigators is leaving, it appears that their work will continue.

"I always said the measure of our success or failures in the cybercrimes [unit] ... overall would be the 2014 attorney general's race," McDaniel said. "If the candidates were saying they wanted to expand on the successes of what McDaniel did in this area, then we knew we'd done something right."

Both the winner of that race, Republican Leslie Rutledge, and her Democratic opponent, Nate Steel, championed the unit and said they wanted to keep it going forward. In a sometimes heated race, the cybercrimes team was one of the few things on which the pair could agree.

"The reason it's good politics is it's such good policy," McDaniel said. "There are not enough cops on that beat."

Going forward, McDaniel's replacement said the need for enhanced protections for Arkansas children is greater than ever.

Although several weeks away from being sworn in, Rutledge lauded the work done by the unit and said that she would like to see the investigators get more resources.

"There can never be enough investigators. Unfortunately, this crime has become so prevalent across the state," she said. "[The arrests made] doesn't even scratch the surface of the number of crimes committed. With more and more children using the Internet [and] having access to it through smartphones, more and more predators and criminals having access and finding new and innovative ways, it's something the office should be involved in and hopefully something we can enhance."

Metro on 12/29/2014

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