Cops Conduct Child Porn Sweep

Mountain View Police Department detectives have joined 30 law enforcement agencies and more than 165 detectives Thursday to collaborate in a county-wide sweep child pornography dubbed "Operation Chickenhawk."

Detective will help the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (SVICAC) and execute 20 search warrants at different locations. "This is the largest child porn sweep ever in Northern California," the San Jose Police Department said in a press release.

Teams in Mountain View, Los Gatos, San Jose, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz police departments, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security (Homeland Security Investigations) will participate. The agencies belong to SVICAC, according to the release.

Officers hope to seize evidence that link the suspects to the distribution and or possession of child pornography, the release added.

According to statistics from the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection, a non-profit that provides a hotline for users to report child pornography and which investigates these reports, since 2003 they've red flagged and reported 8,415 cases believed to be child pornography to law enforcement agencies.

Their analysis shows that about 59 percent of child pornograpy features children under 11.

Established in 2003, SVICAC belongs to a group of 61 around the nation that targets peer-to-peer file sharing online, and investigates cases of web-facilitated child pornography and cases of child sexual exploitation or abuse that results from contact over the Internet or other computer services.

The group works with the local FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

SVICAC's efforts have evolved from previous investigative techniques that identified suspects through chatroom decoy operations, police explained in the release.

Investigators now search for hard-core images involving pre-pubescent children. They use a variety of investigative techniques to identify suspects involved in possessing and distributing child pornography. Detectives then obtain search warrants for those homes, the department said in its prepared statement.

The San Jose Police Department is the lead agency for SVICAC.

Among the tools used by SVICAC include a mobile forensics lab that allows investigators to drive up to a suspect's home, seize hard drives and immediately search for evidence that would normally take months to obtain from a state Department of Justice laboratory, according to the statement.

SVICAC has arrested more than 40 men for possession of child pornography since January, the statement said, in sweeps around the Bay Area.

Additional reporting by Claudia Cruz.

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