The debut of the first-ever U.S.-based Victim Identification Lab, created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), has already generated more than 560 leads in the effort to identify child victims of pornography. Launched in Dallas, Texas at the Crimes Against Children Conference August 21-25, the Victim Identification Lab allowed select conference attendees, representatives from law-enforcement and prosecutors from around the world, to contribute to the efforts of NCMEC to identify child victims seen in sexually abusive images.
During the week, 540 registered users visited the lab 778 times, viewed "sanitized" images and posted information that generated over 560 leads. As a result, jurisdictions have been identified for five children and in one case, the identity of a previously unknown child victim was determined.
"The collaborative effort of law enforcement and prosecutors involved in the Victim Identification Lab has proven that by working together we can identify clues needed to find these children and stop future exploitation and abuse," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. "This was the first step in an ongoing aggressive initiative that taps national and international resources to identify and rescue child victims."
Partnering with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces, NCMEC's Child Victim Identification Program (CVIP), which serves as the national clearinghouse for child pornography cases and the main point of contact to international agencies for victim identification, worked in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service to bring the Lab to the conference and staff over 42 hours of operation.
Participants included law-enforcement officials and prosecutors from 48 states and 11 countries. Participants viewed 50 files with the graphic material removed, both photographs and videos, showing background identifiers, audio clues, children’s faces and suspects’ faces. The Lab featured 30 individual workstations, donated by the ICAC Task Forces, with real-time message posting of comments and suggestions that could be viewed by everyone in the Lab.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Assistant Attorney General Regina B. Schofield toured the lab and received a demonstration of its capabilities on opening day. Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice initiative aimed at preventing the online exploitation and abuse of children, was announced by Attorney General Gonzales in May.
All information submitted by Lab users will be compiled and analyzed by NCMEC. The information will then be distributed to the appropriate law-enforcement agency for investigation.
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