N.C. sets tighter trap
for Internet predators


Undercover officers will train to pose as kids

ERIC FRAZIER

Child molesters prowling for victims on the Internet will soon stand a greater chance of running into undercover officers.

A new N.C. law, combined with a ramped-up police training program, will bring tougher penalties and higher numbers of undercover officers onto the Internet. The officers will pose as children to trap predators.

In January, the first dozen officers will enroll in state-sponsored classes to learn how to catch child predators on the Internet. More than 60 officers are scheduled to receive the training by May, the N.C. Attorney General's Office said.

The effort comes in the wake of a new law making it a felony, rather than a misdemeanor, to proposition an undercover police officer posing as a child on the Internet. The law went into effect Dec. 1.

Attorney General Roy Cooper has sent a letter to sheriffs and police chiefs across the state asking them to take advantage by sending officers to the classes.

Cooper said more than 500 cases of child sexual exploitation were reported in N.C. last year. In 2001, only 11 such incidents were reported, reports the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The State Bureau of Investigation isn't aware of any arrests under the new law, but the agency is working cases using the law, authorities said.

The Cleveland County Sheriff's Office last month arrested a man from Maine after a deputy posing as a 14-year-old girl spent seven months talking to him online. The man has a court date in mid-January, records show. His arrest predates the new law.

Charlotte Mecklenburg police this year have been building an in-house Internet crimes unit. Several detectives and supervisors have already been trained, said Capt. Bruce Bellamy, and more will be trained.
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© 2005 Charlotte Observe