Working with Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which I chair, recently received 1.2 million dollars in stimulus money.

ICAC is a multi-jurisdictional task force of city, county, state and federal law enforcement organizations that have collaborated since 2000. Currently, the Ohio ICAC has 280 law enforcement partners in all 88 Ohio counties.

These ICAC Recovery Funds will allow the Ohio Task Force to partner with the Ohio Attorney General's Office (OAG) to increase its Cyber-Tip and Peer-to-Peer investigations and expand its computer forensic capacity.  

With the funding, we are hiring six employees, four for the Ohio Attorney General's Office and two for Cuyahoga County Prosecutors Office who will be designated in Northeast Ohio (Cleveland-area), in Southwestern Ohio (Dayton-area) and Central Ohio (Columbus-area) counties.  

Increasing the investigative capabilities of Ohio ICAC will result in enhanced detection, investigation, prosecution, and apprehension of Internet crimes committed against children. This will allow Ohio ICAC to maintain and expand its impact on keeping children safe throughout Ohio.

Additionally, we obtained a $586,000 grant for ICAC. This is a continuing grant that supports our Ohio ICAC efforts. With this grant, we will hire another investigator to work at our undercover office in Northeast Ohio.