Tazewell Moose Lodge buys internet crimes computer for Tazewell County Sheriff's Office – Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Partly cloudy. Low 39F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph..
Partly cloudy. Low 39F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
Updated: October 7, 2022 @ 6:54 pm
The Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office unveiled a new internet crimes computer Thursday that was provided by the Tazewell Moose Lodge #198.
The Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office unveiled a new internet crimes computer Thursday that was provided by the Tazewell Moose Lodge #198.
TAZEWELL, Va. — Predators stalking the internet for children and child pornography use increasing advanced computer technology, but a local civic organization has provided the county sheriff’s office with the sophisticated tool detectives needed to counter these predators.
The Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office unveiled a new internet crimes computer Thursday that was provided by the Tazewell Moose Lodge #198. This new piece of equipment cost about $6,000.
“We have lots of cases come in every year,” Sheriff Brian Hieatt said. “There are more and more children being exploited on the internet and this computer and the programs we have are specifically done to seek out those cases with child pornography being used, to download phones. That’s one thing when we have cases where we have to download an iPad or a cellphone, there’s so much that has to be stored and kept there for cases.”
Hieatt said the Tazewell Moose Lodge has helped his office acquire other equipment in the past, and the latest contribution will help local investigators keep up with the computer technology that predators and scammers are using.
“As technology improves, we need something bigger and better, and the Moose Lodge has always been very good to help us out; and with the partnerships that they have for internet safety that they can tell you about, they’ve been able to help us,” he stated.
According to the Safe Surfing Foundation, the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office uses the new technology more than any other agency in the nation, said Harry Nolley, administrator for the Moose Lodge.
“Tazewell County was top of the line,” he said.
Hieatt said the system runs 24-hours a day and seeks out illegal images and videos involving children. The computer’s programs looks for activity involving child pornography or predators. The information can lead to cases that are investigated in other parts of the country where perpetrators commit their crimes.
“It goes out into the web and searches for known images of child pornography and things like that,” said Detective-Lieutenant Michael Hall. “Child exploitation material and basically, it’s a covert operation. We’re able to gather those as perpetrators and download those, and we’re able to backtrack through their internet provider and find out the person, the owner, and we start our criminal investigation there. We also have several programs once we get computers and laptops, cellphones, things like, that we’re able to analyze. and some of the programs, even if the perpetrator has deleted images or information, we have programs that are able to get that information back.”
The new computer has a “very fast and high-tech processor” which helps investigators process images and evidence from hard drives and cellphones faster, Hall said.
“It’s able to go out onto the web and search more and faster for these items,” Hall said. “Child porn. Child exploitation.”
The COVID pandemic led to a major increase in the number of internet crimes against children. This was mainly due to people being locked down in their homes and file sharing.
“I think the last statistic that I ran, at one point before COVID we had 17 investigations,” Hall said. “And during the first 18 months of the COVID lockdown, we had close to 50 new cases. and with the technologies that come out and kids online – apps, cellphones, things like that –we repeatedly get more and more of these cases. I’d say on average we probably get five to six cases a month, and sometimes even more; so this computer is going to help us with these investigations and processing that evidence.”
Detective Scott Stiltner goes undercover and actively looks for online predators, Hall added.
“He goes online undercover, covert operations. He has social media accounts in which he portrays himself as an underage person in chat rooms, things like that,” Hall said. “So he’s actively out there looking for predators who may prey on young people. He’s done several undercover operations and he’s been very successful. Our success rate is very high, in the 90 percent since I’ve been here. Our conviction rate is very high.”
The sheriff’s office is a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force based in Bedford County, Va., Hieatt said.
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
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