THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE MENOMONIE, WI POLICE DEPARTMENT
|
THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE MENOMONIE, WI POLICE DEPARTMENT |
|
|
In the last few years, the Menomonie Police Department has seen a growing trend of criminals using computers to commit major crimes. These crimes include drug dealing, stalking, harassment, identity fraud, insurance fraud and theft. These crimes also include crimes against children. The computer age has thrown a new twist into crimes and has given criminals a new, and anonymous, tool to help them commit the crime. Law enforcement agencies across the country, including the Menomonie Police Department, are quickly finding out that new resources and training are needed to combat the computers used in these crimes. Computer used by pedophiles to commit crimes against children are especially disturbing and increasing. Computers allow pedophiles to share, distribute, and receive child pornography anonymously. Gone are the days where a pedophile had to receive a magazine or photographs of child pornography and risk having someone see it and report it to the police. The computer enables the pedophile to store thousands and thousands of child pornography items on a single hard drive. The computer also enables a pedophile to take digital photos of a child and immediately see the photo and distribute the photo all over the world. Computers also aid pedophiles in communicating with children. Pedophiles will try to communicate with children using popular chat rooms and messenger services such as ICQ, YAHOO!, America Online, or Microsoft Messenger. Myspace.com is also a popular website that pedophiles are using to communicate with children. These chat rooms are similar to a phone conversation except typing is used instead of voices. The messages are sent over the Internet in real time. Since children are quite experienced on computers these days, they can usually communicate with other people on the computer without their parents knowing about it. These pedophiles realize this and will attempt to be-friend a child and try to convince them into meeting the pedophile somewhere for sex and/or photographing. Sometimes these children are kidnapped by these pedophiles and never seen again. The pedophile is able to remain anonymous and hidden from law enforcement and parents in these crimes because of the computer. In the past year, the Menomonie Police Department has investigated several cases of computer crimes in the City of Menomonie. The first case involved a UW-Stout student setting up a computer server in his dorm room and distributing child pornography pictures and movies over the university computer network to other students in the dorm. This individual had a complicated computer setup and Menomonie PD was called in to assist in recovering the computer items and data. In the end, the child pornography, which contained many pictures and movies of very young children either nude or engaged in sexual acts, was confiscated and the suspect arrested. Another major child pornography case happened very recently in the City of Menomonie. The suspect in this case was also a UW-Stout student and, not only possessed child pornography on his computers, but also sexually assaulted several young boys and took pictures of them to distribute over the internet. Menomonie PD computer investigators again were called to a search warrant scene to assist in recovering several computers and computer media used in this child pornography operation. After searching the computers and media, approximately 7000 images of child pornography were found, including homemade images, and approximately 200 child pornography movies stored on the computer were found. It was also discovered this individual had sexually assaulted other children in Wisconsin and other charges are pending on him as well. The Menomonie Police Department has also investigated securities fraud, harassment, and drug dealing, all using computers to commit the crimes. Menomonie Police Department computer crimes investigators have also assisted other Western Wisconsin jurisdictions with computer evidence and computer crimes, including homicide, child enticement, and child pornography crimes. The Menomonie Police Department is dedicated to combating computer crimes and has four officers specially trained to investigate computer crimes and analyze seized computers. In 2002, the Department purchased a Computer Analysis Recovery and Examination (C.A.R.E.) computer workstation. This C.A.R.E. station is a powerful and specifically designed computer that is used to recover and examine computer evidence. In addition, several businesses in the Menomonie area have donated money to the Menomonie Police Department to assist us with purchasing additional hardware and software for the C.A.R.E. station. 24-7 Telcom donated $1000 a year for DSL service to the C.A.R.E. station and Wal-Mart donated $2000 for hardware and software needs. The Menomonie Police Department sincerely appreciates these generous donations! Because of the ever-changing technology sector in our world, the Menomonie Police Department will continue to need additional funding for the C.A.R.E. station hardware and software updates. If you or your business would be interested in assisting us with this project, please CLICK HERE to e-mail us for more information. RECENT C.A.R.E. STATION BUSINESS SPONSORS:
THANK YOU!
|
Send
mail to the
webmaster with questions or comments about this web site.
|
