FRANKFORT, Ky. (June 22, 2016) – In coordination with the National Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, law enforcement agencies throughout the Commonwealth initiated 73 investigations and made 17 arrests during “Operation Broken Heart III” in the months of April and May.
The majority of these arrests were a result of the proactive investigation of online networks, which are routinely used in the distribution of child pornography. Additionally, ICAC personnel gave 38 Internet safety presentations to approximately 1,095 parents and teens at school and community events.
The Kentucky ICAC Task Force was established in 2003 with the Kentucky State Police as the lead agency, and is compromised of 30 federal, state and local agencies.
Across the country, member agencies involved with the national task force arrested approximately 1,370 child predators and made approximately 2,300 community presentations on Internet safety.
The operation included more than 3,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that conducted a coordinated and simultaneous investigation that pledged to arrest as many child sexual exploitation offenders as possible during the two-month period.
The national crackdown targeted offenders who: (1) possess, manufacture and distribute child pornography; (2) engage in online enticement of children for sexual purposes; (3) engage in the commercial sexual exploitation of children (commonly referred to as child prostitution), and (4) engage in child sex tourism (traveling abroad for the purpose of sexually abusing children in other countries).
Sixty-one coordinated local task forces throughout the nation made the arrests, then collected and shared the arrest statistics with the Washington, D.C. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
