The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

• Since the program’s inception in 1998, the ICAC Task Forces have reviewed over180,000 complaints of alleged child sexual victimization resulting in the arrest ofnearly 17,000 individuals.• In fiscal year 2008, ICAC investigations led to more than 3,108 arrests, over 14,339forensic examinations, and the identification of over 1,000 real children who werevictims of some form of abuse and neglect.• In the first three quarters of FY 2009, the ICAC’s have arrested nearly 3,300individuals, with almost one-third of those arrests (1,275) resulting in the acceptanceof a plea agreement by the defendant in lieu of a trial.• ICAC has always included a robust training component. Since the ICAC program’sbeginning in 1998, nearly 100,000 law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and otherprofessionals have been trained throughout the United States and in 17 countriesaround the world on techniques to investigative and effectively prosecute ICACrelated cases.• In fiscal year 2008, the ICAC program trained over 26,000 law enforcementpersonnel, over 2,200 prosecutors, and more than 8,000 other professional working inthe ICAC field. In first three quarters of fiscal year 2009, the number of trained lawenforcement personnel increased to over 28,000, while 1,832 prosecutors have beentrained. 84The Act statutorily authorized the ICAC Task Force Program for the first time. Pursuant to theauthorizing legislation, the ICAC Program seeks to maintain and expand state and regional ICACTask Forces to address technology-facilitated child exploitation. These Task Forces workcollaboratively as a national network of law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies that prevent,interdict, and investigate Internet crimes against children. The program requires existing TaskForces to develop multijurisdictional, multiagency responses to such offenses by providingfunding and other support to state and local law enforcement agencies as a means to help themacquire the necessary knowledge, personnel, and equipment. In 2009 the Office of JusticePrograms/ Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention issued the first continuationfunding solicitation for the ICAC Task Forces as a program authorized by the PROTECT Act.The 2009 solicitation included language from the Act describing the functions andresponsibilities of the ICAC Task Forces and their data reporting responsibilities.As provided for in Section 103 of the Act, ICAC Task Forces are dedicated to the following:• Increasing the investigative capabilities of state and local law enforcement officers inthe detection, investigation, and apprehension of Internet crimes against childrenoffenses or offenders, including technology-facilitated child exploitation offenses.• Conducting proactive and reactive Internet crimes against children investigations.84 Because of the need for continuing education on advanced and emerging topics the count of numbers of personstrained should not be interpreted as an unduplicated total but as units of training delivered.59