HARRISBURG - Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane put a spotlight Tuesday on a new command center to track and apprehend child predators, the result of a $3 million funding boost for one of her top priorities.
"We're making arrests almost every day at this point," Kane said about efforts by the newly created Child Predator Section in the attorney general's office to combat what one agent calls an epidemic.
The guided tour was conducted in part to show what a state budget appropriation can do.
State funding for the program is now at $4.3 million. That enabled Kane to create the child predator section, hire additional agents and attorneys, upgrade the software and purchase two mobile forensic trucks to do on-the-scene analysis.
The increased enforcement shows up in arrest statistics - 105 so far this year compared to 19 arrests in 2012, officials said.
More sophisticated computer software is one of the tools agents use to nab child predators who commit crimes such as sexually abusing children, enticing them to meet for sex and manufacturing, distributing or possessing child pornography.
The software allows agents to monitor file-sharing Internet networks associated with child pornography. It also lets them chat and text with suspects who think they are communicating with children, and then apprehend them using image-tracking devices and search warrants, officials said.
The nerve center for these operations is a converted room in the attorney general's downtown office where a group of lawmakers and reporters toured.
With more than 2,800 identified child predators in Pennsylvania, agents said they are busy keeping up with the underground trafficking in child pornography. "We can do this 24 hours, 7 days a week and there are still people out there," said David Peifer, special agent-in-charge.
Kane described an agent's job in graphic terms.
"The Child Predator Section views thousands upon thousands of photos and videos that child predators download and distribute," she said. "These images are difficult to remove from the brain, and, as a mother, I commend my agents for their strength and commitment to identifying would-be abusers."
