The Associated Press
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - A Wyoming program that aims to combat child pornography over the Internet has been recognized with a law enforcement award.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police and ChoicePoint awarded the Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force with their Excellence in Criminal Investigations Award.
The award was presented at the IACP annual conference in Los Angeles this week.
The Wyoming task force is a unit of the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. It created an international undercover operation to combat the exchange of child pornography over the Internet in the fall of 2003.
The operation has uncovered widespread computer programs that were sharing graphic images of child victimization.
“Hundreds of search warrants have been issued against these computers and more warrants are in process as law enforcement now has a new tool to combat the targeting of our children for sexual exploitation,” state Attorney General Patrick Crank said.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police is the world’s oldest and largest nonprofit membership organization of police executives, with over 19,000 members in over 89 countries. ChoicePoint is the leading provider of identification and credential verification services to businesses, government, non-profit organizations and individuals.