By Linda N. Weller, The Associated Press
ALTON, Ill. (AP) - The Alton, Ill. Police Department’s long arm of the law may now reach to Europe to nab criminals who prey on local residents via the Internet.
Officer Mike Bazzell, the department’s technology specialist, recently advanced his Internet crime-tracking skills at the weeklong International Police Association’s digital world seminar at Gimborn Castle, 30 miles east of Cologne, Germany.
Bazzell said he also established contacts with European law enforcement officials that may be valuable in forthcoming investigations.
“The idea was to teach different ways many countries use technology in policing,” Bazzell said. “Their ideas were the same as ours, but there were resources I was unaware of that can be used globally.”
Among them are software applications that are widely used in the United Kingdom but are not as popular in this country.
“They have different Web site resources available in the United Kingdom that I was not aware of,” Bazzell said. “I wanted to go to mainly see how other countries are investigating computer crime and apply it to my technology.”
Among the topics covered were methods to track the e-mails of criminals committing identity theft, hacking and financial fraud.
“A self-proclaimed hacker from Greece showed us popular ways of hacking in Europe,” Bazzell said.
He said criminals commonly do not think police can track their identities or find information they think they have deleted if their computers are seized.
“There’s always a trail of data left whenever you do anything on a computer,” Bazzell said.
One instructor at the class was detective constable Alistair Blair of Scotland, the chief forensics examination officer in United Kingdom. Bazzell said Blair discussed cases involving threats to the British royal family that he solved by tracing e-mails.
In one case, Blair tracked computer footprints to solve a case in which a 17-year-old sent a powder to Prince William that he claimed was a deadly poison, ricin. The youth also mailed oil mixed with caustic soda to Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He was convicted and sent to prison.
Bazzell gave a presentation on using technology in policing in the United States. The European officers questioned him about patrol techniques and digital video camera systems, which are not popular yet in Europe. His trip costs were covered by a scholarship.
Alton Deputy Police Chief Jody O’Guinn said the seminar should help Bazzell’s investigations.
“I think the training he received over there will be extra beneficial in solving computer crimes for the Alton Police Department and surrounding communities,” O’Guinn said. “Computer crime has jumped dramatically. The criminals are not always in Alton, Illinois, but nationwide or international. It isn’t something just isolated to big cities or big departments.”
In Illinois, Bazzell, who is a member of the Illinois Attorney General’s Regional Computer Crimes Enforcement Group, has helped track down and arrest more than a dozen men who were trying to arrange dates with underage girls via the Internet.