Investigating in the Digital Age: A Law Enforcement Guide

Prosecutor John L. Molinelli of Bergen County, New Jersey is to be commended for his leadership in developing a computer crimes unit and for assigning dedicated professionals such as Investigators John DeVoe and Jeffrey Angermeyer to educate the public on issues of critical concern to contemporary society.

On March 25, 2008, the North Jersey Regional Crime Prevention Officers Association held its monthly meeting at the state of the art auditorium of the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, New Jersey. DeVoe and Angermeyer delivered two presentations—Investigating in the Digital Age: A Law Enforcement Guide and Reading Email Headers: Basic Internet Investigations—to law enforcement and school officials.

Examples of computer facilitated crime covered:

• Child Pornography
  Possession, Distribution
• Child Endangerment,
  Harassment, Terroristic Threats, Hate Crimes
• Traveler Cases
  Luring Youth Online
• Fraud
  Theft, Scams

The presentations also covered Internet lingo and stressed the importance of never including information with screen names and profiles such as a full name, addresses, phone/cell numbers, age, date of birth or school names. The pros and cons of popular social networking sites including Myspace, Facebook and Friendster were also addressed.

Cyber-bullying was discussed as not only detrimental to the self-esteem of a youth, but also an issue that can lead to alienation from the school community, depression and even suicide.

Focusing on protecting youth against Internet crime, several points were highlighted:

• Teaching youth to be wary of strangers online.
• Knowing where youth are going online
• Monitoring of students online

The dangers of online sexual predators were also covered. The ultimate goal of a sexual predator is to meet a child in person by using the following tactics:

• Building rapport through similar interests
• Developing trust
• Maintaining secrecy
• Bombarding the youth with kindness in an effort of weakening their defenses
• Threatening the youth

The community must continue to work together to help our children use the internet wisely and protect them from its' potential dangers.

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Bergen County Prosecutor's Office	Click here to visit site
National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C)	Click here to visit site
FDU Cyber Crime Lab Blog	Click here to visit site