Whitefish officer tapped to focus on internet crimes

In response to the need to enforce crimes involving the internet, the Whitefish Police Department is set to move one of its current officers to the United States Department of Homeland Security office in Kalispell.

It will hire an entry-level officer to replace the officer who will move to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program. The new officer salary will be paid for with a federal grant.

Whitefish City Council last week approved the proposal, which is budget-neutral.

Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial said his department is faced every day with the ever-changing environment of enforcing crimes involving the internet and such crimes against children are more prevalent than ever before. He noted that last fall’s cyber threats against Flathead County school districts that originated with Columbia Falls drove home the need for such officers.

“For the last four to five years we’ve been looking for funding for this,” he said. “This is a borderless crime.”

To address the increasing number of reported crimes against children ICAC task forces, which operate under the U.S. Department of Justice, have formed nationwide. There are currently 61 national task forces consisting of 4,500 federal, state and local law enforcement personnel to investigate internet crimes. Flathead County currently has one officer dedicated to ICAC, Dial noted, and that officer has an “overwhelming” caseload with 800 cases last year.

Dial said Whitefish has received assistance on more complex cases from the county ICAC investigator and federal partners. Whitefish investigates about 15 to 20 cases annually involving the exploitation of children related to sexting, propositioning children for explicit photos, prostitution, human trafficking and numerous other crimes that exploit youth.

One of the most disturbing and violent cases Dial has seen in his 38-years in law enforcement involved a Whitefish man who was exploiting children throughout the community.

“He was right under our nose,” Dial said. “I had many conversations with this guy [prior].”

Dial said had it not been for an ICAC officer in Dallas, Texas, who discovered the internet posts of the sexual predator he would still be in Whitefish and not currently serving 100 years in the Montana Department of Corrections.

Dial noted that the majority of such cases are investigated by an officer or detective lacking the expertise to bring the cases to successful conclusion. Thus, the ICAC task force steps in.

“We’re a small department that sets the bar higher,” Dial said. “We want to provide protection for our community.”

The Whitefish police officer will be housed in the Department of Homeland Security office in Kalispell and receive extensive training relating to internet crimes, especially those against children. Whitefish will retain operational control of the officer, and when an internet crime is committed in Whitefish the department here will get his assistance.

All expenses related to the officer will be funded by the ICAC task force.

The officer, who will be cross-deputized as a federal agent, is also expected to provide training to law enforcement, the community and schools to address internet crimes prevention.

The ICAC task force program is a nationwide initiative started in 1998 under the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention. The federal Children Act of 2017 reauthorized the program through 2022.

In 2016, ICAC task force programs conducted more than 61,000 investigations and 77,800 forensic exams, which resulted in the arrests of more than 9,300 individuals. Additionally, the ICAC program trained over 45,000 law enforcement personnel, over 4,800 prosecutors and more than 9,200 other professionals working in the ICAC field.