RCMP create unit to fight online exploitation
New NWT team will investigate Internet sex crimes targeting children
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, February 10, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Responding to what it says is an increase in online child sexual exploitation crimes, RCMP in the NWT is enhancing the way officers investigate such incidents.
Mounties say they are in the very early stages of creating a new three-member Internet Child Exploitation or "ICE" unit. In the territorial government budget released last week, the GNWT said it will help fund the project with $429,000, or 70 per cent of the program's overall cost. The federal government is to pick up the remaining 30 per cent.
The team's mandate will be to investigate Internet sex crimes against children and use education to be proactive when it comes to online luring and other forms of child sexual exploitation. That is according to RCMP Staff Sgt. Bruce McGregor. He told Yellowknifer more accessibility to the Internet and increased use of social media has created the need for this team.
"We are for sure seeing more activity in that area and the investigations have been increasing substantially for quite a while now," he said.
The unit will consist of two RCMP officers who will be based in Yellowknife and a civilian member technician position. Where the technician will be based has yet to be determined, said McGregor.
The two officers that will make up the unit are expected to receive their instruction from RCMP Internet and child exploitation experts in southern Canada.
"It is a very specialized field and they are very complex investigations both from the investigation side and also the technical side," McGregor said, adding he is cautiously optimistic ICE will be up and running at some point later this year.
According to Kim Schofield, assistant deputy minister solicitor general with the Justice Department, the territorial government contributed to the new unit because RCMP in the NWT needed to develop its own resources to combat this problem.
"The growth in these types of investigations requires that we deploy specifically trained and dedicated staff who will advance investigations and take all possible measures to protect the vulnerable," she stated.
