The Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) seeks to build an effective, international partnership of law enforcement agencies, non government organizations and industry to help protect children from online child abuse.
The objectives of the VGT are:
- to make the internet a safer place
- to identify, locate and help children at risk
- to hold perpetrators appropriately to account
The VGT logo reaffirms the VGT's purpose that the child is the key focus of the VGT and the eye is always roaming the internet, across international borders, watching over our children to keep them safe online.
Online child sexual abuse is a global crime and so it is vital that it is policed at a global level.
As a global response to this global problem, a number of VGT law enforcement agencies have come together across the digital divide to combat online child sexual abuse worldwide.
The successes of the VGT relies on the strong international partnerships involved. The VGT comprises the following members:
The development of international relationships, networks and communications amongst industry and non government organisations is crucial to the VGT’s efforts to investigate online crime and combat online child exploitation.
Police forces in India are often in the line of fire for lethargic action and slow response time while following any case. But probably things are changing, and changing for good.
Thanks to new technologies and officers like Indrajeet Mahatha, a senior Indian Police Service officer of Jharkhand cadre, people have a ray of hope to look up to the otherwise abused lot. Mahatha recently tracked down a girl, who went missing from Saraikela in Jharkhand, using app-based messenger service WhatsApp.
Saraikela Superintendent of Police Indrajeet Mahatha got the information at around 8 pm on March 31, 2015, that a girl had gone missing from the area. Acting swiftly in the case, Mahatha immediately put officials on duty to track the whereabouts of the girl.
According to the IPS officer, the last tracked mobile location of girl was found to be the area's railway station. And then came into play the role of a WhatsApp group formed by Mahatha himself around six months back.
Speaking to IBNLive, the Saraikela SP said that he immediately circulated the photograph of the girl on his WhatsApp group comprising senior police officials from across Bihar and Jharkhand.
Search operations were conducted at different railway stations on all the trains that had left the area. A team of GRP officials recovered the girl within an hour from Subarnarekha Express train at Dhanbad railway station in Jharkhand.
The police officer further informed IBNLive that as many as seven to eight children have been recovered by the police using WhatsApp in the last four-five months.
He said that almost all the districts across Jharkhand and Bihar were connected through the WhatsApp group formed by Mahatha. The group comprises senior police officials as well as SHOs from different police stations.
"The group helps us in swift transfer of information in any such eventuality. For example, photograph of a missing child can be circulated in this manner immediately across all districts, ensuring quick recovery in most cases," said Mahatha.
Apart from this group, the tech-savvy IPS officer has created two other WhatsApp groups – one comprising around 110 IPS officers from his 1999 batch and the other having mediapersons in the region as members.
Though creating a WhatsApp group is no big deal, such effective use of one certainly sets an example for others who are at similar position. As India ventures into an ambitious 'Digital India' programme, such simple but productive use of a chat messenger is the least we can resort to.
Mr. Wilcox, a retired officer with the Los Altos, California, Police Department, is the program coordinator and an instructor in the Criminal Justice Program at Ozarka College in Melbourne, Arkansas.
As mental health problems within communities have increased over the past 40 years, inpatient services have decreased. Therefore, police departments have had to meet the growing needs of individuals suffering mental health emergencies. Police officers not only are the first responders to these crises but often are the only source of immediate service for urgent mental health activities. Various efforts to address mental illness in communities have been instituted by police agencies; however, the implementation rate is incongruent with the number of mental health-related service calls.
Evolution of the Problem
In 1955, 75 percent of individuals who experienced mental health episodes were treated in inpatient settings; by 1977 only 7 percent received inpatient care.[1] This process, termed “deinstitutionalization” by the mental health community, describes the removal of essential patient services in favor of more decentralized approaches.[2] Deinstitutionalization has occurred over time since the mid 1950s and was implemented to reduce the costs incurred by mental hospitals and shift the care away from state institutions that had negative societal perceptions. This shift is problematic because it creates few inpatient, intensive care opportunities for individuals. Additionally, it requires that each episode begins a new treatment process. Prior to this individuals who experienced episodes in an inpatient setting could continue their existing treatment plans, as opposed to starting all over. First responders—specifically those in law enforcement—often are the first step in the process.
Police officers not only are the first responders to [mental health] crises but often are the only source of immediate service for urgent mental health activities.
The effects of deinstitutionalization can be explained through a fictional example. In 1950 John Doe, Sr., suffered his first schizophrenic break. He was arrested by a police officer during the occurrence and formally diagnosed while incarcerated. He spent the next 2 years in a state mental hospital, where he suffered 20 subsequent episodes that promptly were managed. John was released from the hospital, but was voluntarily readmitted 6 months later. He remained there for 18 months, during which he suffered another 8 episodes. Between 1950 and 1954 John experienced 28 episodes during inpatient care.
John’s son, John Doe, Jr., experienced a similar course of events 30 years later. Unlike his father, the 28 episodes John, Jr., suffered from 1980 to 1984 occurred while he was living in the community. Each of his episodes resulted in arrest and involvement with the criminal justice system. John Doe, Sr., had 1 arrest on his record by 1954; in contrast, by 1984 John Doe, Jr., had 28. Instead of reducing the financial expense to the state, deinstitutionalization shifted the cost from state mental hospitals to law enforcement.
Programs for Change
Police officers have a great deal of discretion when interacting with persons with mental illness at a scene; unfortunately, the most common case disposition is arrest.[3] The correctional system has become the primary vehicle for mental health treatment as state mental hospitals and inpatient treatment options dramatically have decreased. The top three most populous mental health institutions in the United States are jails—New York, New York’s Riker’s Island; Chicago, Illinois’ Cook County Jail; and the Los Angeles County, California, Jail.[4]
A primary concern for officers often is how to effectively de-escalate mental health incidents involving agitated individuals when appropriate procedures are unknown to them. The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model is a promising resource for police departments to address and resolve these concerns. The CIT model involves 40 hours of course-based training led by mental health professionals. Its curriculum includes the signs and symptoms of mental illness, medications, de-escalation skills, and treatment options available in the community.[5] Numerous CIT-certified officers have indicated that their specialized training better prepared them for potential events on the street.[6]
Jail diversion initiatives are another important resource, with community-based programs designed to provide greater public safety and reduce the number of incarcerated individuals with mental illnesses. Diversion initiatives are available postarrest to redirect offenders with mental illness into mental health courts. These courts differ from standard criminal courts in that their primary goals are to provide treatment options that would not otherwise be available to offenders and to decriminalize nonviolent actions that are a byproduct of mental illness. By doing so incarceration rates are lowered, the needs of individuals are addressed more adequately, and resources are better employed.
Implementation of a Successful Program
The correctional system has become the primary vehicle for mental health treatment as state mental hospitals and inpatient treatment options dramatically have decreased.
Providing meaningful first-responder services to individuals with mental illness requires the implementation of several core components. First and foremost, a training model must provide a detailed program for officers to follow—the CIT model is one such strategy. The program must partner with local mental health professionals and foster an ongoing, deeply ingrained relationship.[7] Roles must be established at every level of the police organization, from dispatchers to responding officers, supervisors, and administrative personnel. The program should be tailored to fit the community—a “one size fits all” approach does not work with the CIT model. Finally, a significant partnership with community leaders and the mental health community should be established to educate the public on the goals of the program.[8]
Implementation of a broad mental health response program must take into account members of law enforcement reluctant to buy into its goals. Police officers are trained to question their environment and the actions of individuals. Police administrators are seasoned officers with decades of experience as frontline first responders. The CIT model imposes changes on the culture of law enforcement and the way officers interact with persons with mental illness. As a result, some officers may question the necessity of a revamped response process and doubt its methodologies.
The CIT model and jail diversion initiatives hinge on the availability of mental health services and practitioners. The further away these services are geographically, the more logistical challenges exist to implement a successful program. These issues are less common in metropolitan areas than in largely rural areas. One of the key aspects of the CIT model is the relationship between law enforcement and mental health professionals. Police administrators and officers must be willing to perform the additional groundwork to meet the needs of the mental health community.
Some departments have executed programs, such as the CIT model, to train officers as basic frontline caretakers in the assessment and management of offenders with mental illness.
Conclusion
The gradual but substantial shift away from treating persons with mental illness at state mental hospitals has overwhelmed the criminal justice system with an influx of offenders with mental health issues. Police officers frequently are the first step in implementing the mental health treatment process. Some departments have executed programs, such as the CIT model, to train officers as basic frontline caretakers in the assessment and management of offenders with mental illness. CIT-modeled programs potentially can reduce officer line-of-duty injuries, diminish departmental costs associated with use-of-force incidents and unnecessary arrest procedures, provide safer streets for communities, and adequately and efficiently address the needs of citizens with mental illness.
Police officers have a parens patriae obligation to protect those with disabilities.[9] Their actions when interacting with persons with mental illness have ripple effects across the criminal justice system and the communities they serve. Implementing industrywide mental health response programs can provide officers additional training to successfully interact with individuals suffering mental health crises and de-escalate these situations.
For additional information Mr. Wilcox may be contacted at nick.wilcox@ozarka.edu.
What is sextortion? A special agent defines the crime.
Ashley Reynolds was a happy 14-year-old who loved sports, did well in school academically and socially, and enjoyed keeping a journal she intended her “future self” to read. But what happened in the summer of 2009 was so devastating that she couldn’t bring herself to record it in her diary—or speak about it to anyone.
She had become the victim of sextortion, a growing Internet crime in which young girls and boys are often targeted. Her life was being turned upside down by an online predator who took advantage of her youth and vulnerability to terrorize her by demanding that she send him sexually explicit images of herself.
After several months, Ashley’s parents discovered what was happening and contacted the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Ashley and her parents later supported the FBI investigation that led to the arrest of 26-year-old Lucas Michael Chansler, who last year pled guilty to multiple counts of child pornography production and was sent to prison for 105 years—but not before he used the Internet to victimize nearly 350 teenage girls. The majority of those youngsters have not yet been identified.
That’s why the FBI is requesting the public’s help—and why Ashley has come forward to tell her story—so that Chansler’s victims can be located and will know, as Special Agent Larry Meyer said, “that this dark period of their lives is over.”
Meyer, a veteran agent in the FBI’s Jacksonville Division who investigates crimes against children, explained that 109 of Chansler’s victims have been identified and contacted so far, leaving approximately 250 teens “who have not had closure and who probably haven’t obtained counseling and other help they might need.” He noted that Ashley is a brave person with a supportive family “and has been able to use this experience to make her stronger.” Unfortunately, that has not been the case for all the girls, some of whom have dropped out of school and tried to end their lives.
Chansler, who was studying to become a pharmacist, used multiple personas and dozens of fake screen names—such as “HELLOthere” and “goodlookingguy313”—to dupe girls from 26 U.S. states, Canada, and the United Kingdom. And he used sophisticated techniques to keep anyone from learning his true identity.
Pretending to be 15-year-old boys—all handsome and all involved in skateboarding—he trolled popular online hangouts to strike up relationships with teenage girls. In one instance on Stickam, a now-defunct live-streaming video website, evidence seized from his computer showed four girls all exposing their breasts. “The girls are apparently having a sleepover, and Chansler contacted one of them through a random online chat,” Meyer said. “These girls thought they were having a video chat session with a 15-year-old boy that they would never see or hear from again, so they are all exposing themselves, not realizing that he is doing a screen capture and then he’s coming back later—very often in a different persona—saying, ‘Hey I’ve got these pictures of you, and if you don’t want these sent to all your Myspace friends or posted on the Internet, you are going to do all of these naked poses for me.’”
Don’t Become a Victim of Sextortion
Special Agent Larry Meyer and other investigators experienced in online child sexual exploitation cases offer these simple tips for young people who might think that sextortion could never happen to them:
- Whatever you are told online may not be true, which means the person you think you are talking to may not be the person you really are talking to.
- Don’t send pictures to strangers. Don’t post any pictures of yourself online that you wouldn’t show to your grandmother. “If you only remember that,” Meyer said, “you are probably going to be safe.”
- If you are being targeted by an online predator, tell someone. If you feel you can’t talk to a parent, tell a trusted teacher or counselor. You can also call the FBI, the local police, or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline.
- You might be afraid or embarrassed to talk with your parents, but most likely they will understand. “One of the common denominators in the Chansler case,” Meyer noted, “was that parents wished their daughters had told them sooner. They were very understanding and sympathetic. They realized their child was being victimized.”
“It went from what would be relatively benign pictures to fulfilling Chansler’s perverted desires,” Meyer said, adding that while adults know that a young person’s life is only beginning in high school, “to a 13- or 14-year-old girl, thinking that all her friends or her parents might see a picture of her exposing her breasts, the fear was enough to make them comply with Chansler’s demands, believing they had no better options.”
When FBI agents interviewed Chansler after his arrest, they asked why he selected that age group. “One of the comments he made,” Meyer said, “was that older girls wouldn’t fall for his ploy.”
Ashley fell for Chansler’s ploy in late 2008 when she was 14 years old. She was contacted online by someone who claimed to be a teenage boy with embarrassing sexual pictures of her. His screen name was CaptainObvious, and he threatened to send Ashley’s pictures to all her Myspace friends if she didn’t send him a topless image of herself. Without considering the consequences, she sent it. She didn’t think the boy knew who she was or anything else about her. Nothing more happened until the summer of 2009, when Chansler’s persona messaged again, threatening to post her topless picture on the Internet if she didn’t send him more explicit images.
She ignored him at first, but then he texted her on her cell phone. He knew her phone number and presumably where she lived. Somehow he must have hacked information from her social media pages. Chansler was relentless. He badgered her for pictures and continued to threaten. The thought of her reputation being ruined—and disappointing her parents—made Ashley finally give in to her tormenter.
The next few months were a nightmare as Ashley complied with Chansler’s demands. She was trapped and felt she couldn’t talk to anyone. She kept thinking if she sent more pictures, the monster at the other end of the computer would finally leave her alone. But it only got worse—until the day her mother discovered the images on her computer.
“I just remember breaking down and crying, trying to get my dad not to call the police,” Ashley said, “because I knew that I would end up in jail or something because I complied and I sent him the pictures even though I didn’t want to. I tried to think rationally, like this guy was threatening me. But I sent him the pictures, so that’s breaking the law, isn’t it? I am under age and I am sending him naked pictures of me. I didn’t want to go to jail.”
Part of an online chat between Lucas Michael Chansler and one of his victims.
Still, she was relieved that she didn’t have to keep her secret any longer. And her parents were supportive.
Ashley’s mother did some research and contacted the NCMEC’s CyberTipline. An analyst researching the case was able to tie one of the screen names used to sextort Ashley to another case in a different state and realized the predator most likely had multiple victims. Eventually, FBI and NCMEC analysts were able to pinpoint an Internet account in Florida where the threats were originating, and that information was passed to FBI agents who work closely with NCMEC in child exploitation investigations.
When investigators executed a search warrant at Chansler’s Jacksonville house and examined his computer, they found thousands of images and videos of child pornography. They also found folders labeled “Done” and “Prospects” that contained detailed information about the nearly 350 teens he had extorted online.
Meyer and the Jacksonville Crimes Against Children Task Force analyzed the images of the girls to identify and locate them. One victim was located through a picture of her and her friends standing in front of a plate glass window at their school. Reflected in the glass was the name of the school, which led to her identification. Another victim was found through a radio station banner seen in a video hanging on her bedroom wall. The station’s call letters led to a city and, eventually, to the victim. More than 250 investigators, analysts, victim specialists, child forensic interviewers, and community child advocacy centers were involved in locating and interviewing the known victims.
But approximately 250 victims are still unidentified and may have no idea that Chansler was arrested and sent to jail.
“It’s important that we find these girls so that they don’t have to be looking over their shoulder, wondering if this guy is still out there and is he looking for them and is he going to be coming back,” Meyer explained, adding that “some of these girls, now young women, need assistance. Many probably have never told anyone what they went through.”
Ashley Reynolds, who was a victim of Lucas Michael Chansler’s sextortion scheme, hopes her story helps prevent other teens from falling for similar ploys. High-res image
Ashley, now 20, is doing what she can to get the word out about sextortion so that all of Chansler’s victims can be identified and other girls don’t make the mistakes that she made. “This ended for me,” she said, but for many of Chansler’s victims, “this never ended for them.”
When Meyer began working crimes against children cases eight years ago, he visited freshman and sophomore high school classes to talk about Internet safety. “Now,” he said, “we are going to fourth and fifth grade because kids are getting on the Internet at younger ages.”
He added, “We know that youngsters don’t always make sound decisions. Today, with a smartphone or digital camera, an individual can take an inappropriate picture of themselves and 10 seconds later have it sent to someone. Once that picture is gone,” he said, “you lose all control over it, and what took 10 seconds can cause a lifetime of regret.”
For her part, Ashley hopes that talking about what she went through will resonate with young girls. “If it hits close to home, maybe they will understand. High school girls never think it will happen to them,” she said. “I never thought this would happen to me, but it did.”
On June 25 of this year, the body of a deceased toddler-age girl was found on the western shore of Deer Island in Winthrop. State and local police and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office continue to try to identify the girl, and are again making an appeal to the public for help. Today, we are releasing a computer-generated composite image of the girl prepared by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. This image depicts what the child may have looked like in life. We are also releasing images of the leggings she was wearing when found, which are white with black polka dots, and of a black and white zebra-stripe blanket found with the child’s body. The girl was approximately four years old at the time of her death, had brown eyes and brown hair, weighed about 30 pounds, and stood about 3½ feet tall.
We ask the public to be alert for any children who seem to have gone missing from their communities, their neighborhoods, schools, summer programs, parks, churches or any other places where people gather. Also, please look around July 4th gatherings – block parties, cookouts, town fireworks displays – and consider whether a child whom you would have expected to see there is now not present.
Anyone with any information about this toddler or who has information about a missing child is urged to call Massachusetts State Police at 508-820-2121 (24-hour number), the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit at 617-727-8817, or Winthrop Police at 617-539-5806.
Thank you. Please help us speak for this child who can no longer speak for herself.
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Reforms in Minnesota's child protection system went into effect Wednesday, July 1, including a requirement that all complaints to child protection be forwarded to police for possible investigation.
The new measure comes in the wake of reports of multiple child protection failures including the case of eight adopted special needs children who were allowed to live in filthy conditions. They lived in deplorable conditions in a Richfield house for years despite state mandated visits from a nurse and warnings reported to Hennepin County Child Protection.
The Davies' house was declared 'Unsafe for Human Occupancy' by the city of Richfield in February 2015 (Photo: Permission granted to KARE 11 by photographers)
New records indicate a report of alleged physical abuse of the children was received by child protection, but it was not forwarded to local police. That is something the new law is designed to change.
"Something definitely could have been done earlier," said Andrew Davies, now 20, the oldest of the children. He grew up in the home and says the problems went beyond a filthy house.
"I was abused," he told KARE 11's A.J. Lagoe. "Slapped around. Got like nails in the back of my neck. Even got thrown down the stairs one time."
The children were finally removed from the home and placed in protective custody inJanuary, after Andrew called a family friend for help. Local building officials inspected the house and declared it "unsafe for human occupancy."
In February Andrew filed a formal child maltreatment report, claiming that his adult, adopted sister Erin Davies, the mother of two of the adopted children and a state-paid caregiver for the others, "physically abused" most of the children. He claims she threw a "bucket of hot cleaning water" at them, clawing their necks and slapping them "across the face." He also reported that she was "not giving the kids their medications" and, instead, "using them herself."
Erin Davies has not responded to KARE 11's attempts to discuss the allegations with her.
Andrew's report was far from being the first time CPS was warned the kids were at risk. Someone else made a report in 2010 that "a child was maltreated," but a copy of a child protection letter about the case shows that Hennepin County "determined child protective services are not needed."
Before that, there were other reports.
A woman who is a "mandated reporter" – meaning she's required by law to report suspected abuse she sees – told KARE 11's Lagoe that she made several official reports about the Davies house, once after scraping a dead cat off the floor of a child's bedroom.
"You made reports to child protective services?" asked Lagoe.
"I have. I have in the past, yes," said the woman, who asked that we not use her name.
"It's dead animals, it's animal feces," she recalled. "It's so much more than you could ever just think of."
Her warnings, she says, were ignored.
Child protection records aren't public, so it's hard to know what happened behind the scenes. But Hennepin County told KARE 11 that if a report is "screened in" or opened for investigation it's automatically forwarded to local law enforcement.
So KARE 11 went to Richfield, where the Davies house was located, and asked the police department if CPS ever forwarded any of those reports to them. The answer was no.
That tells us child protection likely "screened out" the reports and never bothered to actually investigate if the kids living there were in danger.
In fact, that's what has been happening to most child protection complaints. State data shows Hennepin County, which received more than 15,000 child protection reports last year, screened out nearly two-thirds of them. A review of the most recent federal data shows that in 2013, more than 70% of child abuse reports were screened out in Minnesota, without any protective action. That was the third highest rate in the country.
"I think most of us in the child welfare area would say there were too many cases screened out over time," said Rex Holzemer, Hennepin County's Assistant Administrator for Human Services.
Holzemer says the underfunded, understaffed system has in essence been running a triage system.
"Neglect compared to a sexual abuse case or a physical abuse case - especially a gross physical abuse case - is gonna fall to a lower priority," he said.
Hennepin County commissioned a recently completed report on their child safety system. It didn't mention any specific cases, but concluded child neglect has been "a low priority." The study concluded that reports of abuse and neglect were being screened out on "questionable grounds."
In the wake of the little boy's death, Governor Mark Dayton appointed a special Governor's task force to recommend reforms. During a public hearing this spring, the filthy house in Richfield was one of the cases cited by witnesses.
In addition to statewide reforms, the Hennepin County Board plans to vote next week on a plan to add nearly 100 new workers to the local child protection staff.
