By Mark Rosman
Staff Writer
Monmouth County’s governing body has approved the participation of municipal law enforcement personnel on an existing Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force with a goal of investigating Internet child exploitation-related crime.
During a recent meeting, the Board of Freeholders authorized the execution of a task force agreement among the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and various municipalities.
In a resolution, the freeholders said the prosecutor’s office “has determined there is a need to address the proliferation of electronically facilitated child exploitation, especially Internet child predation and the possession and distribution of child pornography in Monmouth County.”
The freeholders said the ICAC task force “comprised of experienced personnel from the prosecutor’s office augmented by law enforcement personnel from several municipalities in Monmouth County will provide the opportunity for the municipal personnel to gain invaluable experience in investigating Internet child exploitation-related crime while simultaneously increasing the manpower of the task force …”
The task force agreement involving the prosecutor’s office and the municipalities will not be shared with the public because information contained in the agreement “constitutes part of criminal investigatory records,” according to the resolution, which states that releasing certain information to the public “could have an adverse and irreparable effect on some of the more sensitive law enforcement operations involved in this activity.”