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Police Fight to Keep Up With Web Predators: Cases Far Outnumber Available Officers

Posted on: Sunday, 12 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Eric Frazier, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Feb. 12--Four times in the past three weeks, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say, a man went on the Internet and propositioned a 14-year-old girl for sex.

The girl turned out to be an undercover police officer, and authorities late Tuesday arrested Thomas Royster, 25, at his University area home.

The arrest marked the latest in a growing number of cases in which police officers go online and pose as teenagers to catch suspected Internet predators.

But even as they notch more arrests, N.C. police say they are struggling to stay on top of the problem. With more children online, some of North Carolina's best-trained Internet investigators say they are swamped.

"We have way more than we can handle," said Kevin West, special agent in charge of the State Bureau of Investigation's computer crimes unit, North Carolina's primary response to Internet predators.

The unit handles various types of cybercrimes, but West said nearly all of its caseload centers on crimes against children.

"It's growing so fast," he said. "We can hardly keep up with it."

Exact statistics aren't available, but West estimates fewer than 50 local, state and federal officers in North Carolina are sufficiently trained to handle Internet predator investigations full time.

He said about 20 officers with local N.C. police agencies handle such cases full time; about two dozen federal and state officers stationed in North Carolina are trained for them.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have three vice and narcotics detectives who handle undercover Internet predator stings along with their other duties, said Capt. Bruce Bellamy. About six other officers have received training, he added.

Police arrested Royster at his Knollwood Circle home after a detective went online posing as a 14-year-old girl, Bellamy said. Royster was jailed Wednesday on four counts of felony solicitation of a child by computer to commit an unlawful act.

He was released from jail Saturday on bonds of at least $25,000, according to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office Web site. He could not be reached for comment.

Online stings accounted for about a quarter of all arrests involving Web-related sex crimes against children, said a study published last year by the Crimes Against Children Research Center in New Hampshire.

The cases brought high rates of guilty pleas, the study found, and low rates of dismissals or dropped charges. Entrapment defenses generally haven't worked.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg detectives began going online about six months ago, Bellamy said, and have netted about six arrests.

"It's new territory for us," he said. "Could the numbers be higher if we had a unit devoted strictly to doing this? It could well be."

It's too easy for predators

Thousands of children in Charlotte are heading onto the Internet, chatting with each other and sharing detailed personal information that could give a predator clues on how best to approach them.Finding them is as easy as clicking onto social networking Web sites.

One recent morning, a former teacher turned Internet safety author named Koh, who asked that her last name not be used because of safety concerns, within minutes found electronic links to 413 children at South Mecklenburg High School. She found 176 at Harding, 137 at Charlotte Catholic and nearly 200 at Clover High in South Carolina.

On one 16-year-old South Mecklenburg student's page, she found information about the girl's friends and interests, as well as this bold declaration about herself: "Will try anything."

"This is the easiest way for a predator right now," Koh said as she clicked through the pages. "It's a pedophile's fantasy land."

Police have scrambled to stay ahead of Internet predators.

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper formed the SBI's cybercrimes unit in 2003. Last year, he asked N.C. lawmakers to add seven more positions to the unit; the General Assembly added four.

That brought the number of investigators to nine, West said. Each carries about 10 to 15 active cases, and each has about as many more cases waiting.

The unit handled 224 cases in 2005, up from 160 the previous year.

Police in major cities, such as Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro, tend to handle their own cybercrime investigations, West said. But smaller agencies often ask the SBI for help.

Most local police assign online child predator investigations to officers who fight juvenile crime, West said. However, those duties are usually added to existing casework.

"Most local agencies just don't have the manpower to deal with it," West said. "We're doing as much as we can, but it's sometimes overwhelming."

Law enforcement takes steps

The SBI, with a $400,000 federal grant, hopes to buy about two dozen laptop computers it can take on the road as a mobile training lab.

Also, the N.C. Department of Justice began offering introductory cybercrime training classes for officers about three years ago. By mid-December, more than 60 officers in the state had registered for this year's classes.

Last year, the S.C. Attorney General's Office began helping local police get trained, too. About 16 local officers have been trained, said Mark Plowden, spokesman for the attorney general's office.

Cooper said he hopes more N.C. police agencies will send officers to classes now that the state has a new law making it a felony, rather than a misdemeanor, to solicit an undercover officer posing as a teenager online.

"That means, hopefully, we will have scores of law enforcement out there online trying to stop these predators before they can get to our children," the attorney general said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police applied the law against Royster. Two weeks ago, Greensboro authorities used it, too, after arresting former NASCAR spokesman Richard "Chip" Williams of Mooresville in an Internet predator sting.

The Guilford County Sheriff's Office said it arrested Williams, 48, after a 15-year-old girl he is charged with raping came forward and agreed to help police find the Internet acquaintance she knew as "John Wisham."

She introduced Wisham to a second girl, who was actually an undercover police officer. The officer chatted with Wisham online, and police arrested Williams after he showed up at at Greensboro church parking lot where the officer had arranged a meeting with Wisham.

Like the SBI's investigators, Guilford Sheriff's Detective W.A. Long struggles to make time for online operations as he works on backlogged cases.

"It's kinda out of control," said Long, the agency's computer forensics expert. "Kids are spending so much time online."

How to Protect Your Child

Avoid Online Profiles. Usually, it's requested for advertising purposes, and predators use them for insight on how to approach children.

Control Chat Room Access. Adults seeking to exploit children spend countless hours in chat rooms. Consider your child's age and maturity before letting him or her enter one.

Take Care of Photographs. Children shouldn't send pictures to anyone, including other children, without parental approval.

Keep Screen Names Anonymous. Predators can use them to track down a child.

Access Your Child's E-mail. Experts say parents should share an e-mail account with their child, or maintain access to the child's account and check it frequently. A computer, unlike a diary or journal, carries information to and from your home.

Place Computers in Common Areas. The screen should face out into the room, so you can see what your child is doing online.

SOURCE: Guilford County Sheriff's Office

Eric Frazier: (704) 358-5145; efrazier@charlotteobserver.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

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Source: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

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