NM tracking Internet pornography

CLOVIS, N.M. (AP) - Curry County sheriff's Investigator Sandy Loomis says the Internet is one of the most powerful tools a child predator has.

So law enforcement agencies are using the same tool in an effort to stop the risk to children.

Officers in eastern New Mexico's Curry and Roosevelt counties are using specially designed computer software to hunt out people who seek and collect or share child pornography.

Loomis would not go into detail about how the software identifies child pornography and those who possess it.

The software looks at such things as geographical location, quantity and frequency to target users sharing and downloading child pornography.

Investigators look for patterns, using software that searches networks and identifies child pornography being downloaded or shared.

Loomis supervises Curry County's three-year-old Internet Crimes Against Children unit. So far, Curry County has put together more than 40 cases of child pornography or solicitation.

Roosevelt County Undersheriff Malin Parker said the department created a similar unit that has made Internet child pornography its initial focus.

A deputy assigned to the unit, Timothy Morrison, said Roosevelt County has filed charges in eight child pornography cases and has more than 30 subpoenas and search warrants either served or ongoing.

Child pornography is illegal. Those seeking it typically have to use very specific key word searches to find it, which Morrison said makes it less likely someone downloaded the material by accident.

"You're pretty much not going to run into child pornography unless you're looking for it," he said.

Authorities say what a user does with a file gives law enforcement a picture of the intent.

Loomis said law enforcement officers look at what was being searched for, how often and how many times a user opened a file and if a user renamed a file or moved it to a storage device. He said that all maps the history of a file and shows a user knowingly possessed and accessed a file with intent.

"If you move it to a hard drive or if you put it on a disc or a flash drive, that's not an accident," Loomis said.

Curry County Undersheriff Wesley Waller said there are 61 coordinated task forces of federal, state and local agencies using software and other technology to detect people trading in child pornography.

Roosevelt County's Parker said that expertise is a boon to rural areas.

"I don't think that (Internet predators) realize that here in small-town America we have the technology and the personnel to be able to catch them," Parker said.

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Information from: Clovis News Journal