Funding is Being Disbursed for Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC)

I have listened to the news broadcasters over the past few days as they droned on and on about the AIG bailout and the payment of huge bonuses to AIG employees. I listened as our politicians in Washington changed the law, allowing a 90% tax to be applied to those bonuses. I left the room, shaking my head, bone-tired of all the nonsense that makes up our government today. I was feeling disillusioned and discouraged with the way our country is going.

As I sat at my computer, trying to find something that would lift my spirits a bit, I stumbled upon some information about the money from the stimulus package that will be going to the 59 task forces across our country. This is money that is designated for the safety and protection of our children online. This is money that will be spent training more police officers and equipping those law enforcement agencies so they can quickly track down online pedophiles who prey upon innocent children. As dark a hole as pedophilia is, it was still encouraging to me to see that this money is a wise investment in our nation's children.

I wrote another article recently titled Money from Stimulus Package will Help Rescue Child Victims of Online Sexual Exploitation. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has appropriated $50 million in grant funding to Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC), which will be administered by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. This money goes to the 59 state and local task forces, representing 2,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies as well as prosecutorial agencies.

You can find a breakdown of the funding disbursement here: Funding Chart

The ICAC Task Force Program helps state and local law enforcement agencies develop effective responses to internet crimes against children and the spread of child pornography across the Internet. Since the ICAC Program began in 1998, nearly 100,000 law enforcement officers and prosecutors in the U.S and in 17 countries have become better trained to deal with online predators who seek out innocent victims.
These task forces have responded to more than 100,000 complaints of child victimization and has resulted in the arrest of more than 13, 500 people.

In 2007, the ICAC program provided training for more than 20,000 law enforcement officers and nearly 1,700 prosecutors. This yielded the arrest of more than 2,400 people.

In 2008, the number of trained law enforcement officers was more than 26,500 and more than 2,200 prosecutors were trained. More than 3,000 arrests were made in 2008.

These numbers for 2007 and 2008 are impressive, but imagine how much more can be accomplished as a result of this funding through the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) and the Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS Hiring Program). This money will change the lives of countless children who have been victimized by online predators.

This is the kind of action that helps restore my confidence in this great country. As we all work together, we can help make America a safe place for all of our children for generations to come and we can become a shining example to other countries who are struggling with the same problems of internet crimes against children. We can truly lead the way and become that "Shining City on a Hill" as described by the late President Ronald Reagan.

Sources:
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/grants/solicitations/FY2009/ARRAICACFundingChart.pdf
http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/Programs/ProgSummary.asp?pi=3