In the age of the internet, people can distribute child pornography between themselves more easily than ever before. With cellphone and video technology in almost everyone’s home, child pornography is also more easily made than in the past. With this increased activity, police and prosecutors at the local, state and federal levels take finding people who make or look at child pornography very seriously.
In order to catch people with child pornography, police will often conduct undercover investigations. These investigations can sometimes include infiltrating websites where people exchange images of children or talk about child sex abuse. These extensive investigations can lead to serious charges. However, with this aggressive prosecution comes the risk that people are being falsely accused.
Recently, a two month long investigation has led to the arrest of a Chicago area man. The 53-year-old man — from the southern suburb of Frankfort — was charged with six felony child pornography charges. According to police the man was responsible for distributing and downloading pornographic images of children. The police claim that the imagines included adults with children and children as young as nine-years-old.
The investigation was a joint effort between officials from the U.S. Secret Service, the Illinois Attorney General’s office, Frankfort Police Department and the Will County State’s Attorney’s office. The investigation, according to authorities, culminated with a warranted search of the man’s house, just prior to his arrest.
This was just one arrest of 45 that Will County State’s Attorney’s High Technology Crimes Unit has made involving child sexual abuse since March 2012.
With all these arrests, people need to make sure that their constitutional rights are being upheld. These rights include a right to privacy, a right to be treated as innocent until proven guilty and the right to have an attorney.
Source: Chicago Tribune, “Frankfort man charged with child porn possession,” Dennis Sullivan, Oct. 30, 2013
