Kane state’s attorney, sheriff announce new county Child Exploitation Unit

ST. CHARLES – Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser has announced the new Kane County Child Exploitation Unit, which is aimed at stopping the distribution of child pornography and online sexual exploitation of children.

The unit, an initiative with the Kane County Sheriff’s Office and in collaboration with the St. Charles Police Department, was unveiled Monday at a news conference at the St. Charles Police Department.

“We have to do a better job to support our local law enforcement in this fight,” Mosser said. “That is what I believe we are doing with this collaborative effort.”

The unit will be housed at the sheriff’s office and will use the St. Charles Police Department’s cyber lab for investigations. Mosser said this allows investigators to handle and analyze all of their evidence in-house.

The unit also will collaborate with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

Cyber tips are sent to local law enforcement agencies, mainly by internet providers and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. According to data from NCMEC, in 2021, there were almost 30 million reports of online sexual exploitation of children.

“The simple reality is federal, state and local law enforcement agencies do not have the resources necessary to keep up with this issue,” Mosser said.

Mosser said in 2021 that most of the tips received by Kane County police agencies were not being investigated because of a lack of resources.

Robert Dore, chief of the criminal division in the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office, said before the new unit was formed, he ran a criminal content search on the most common internet providers in Kane County from January 2021 through May 2021. He said in that time, 48,000 images or videos of identifiable child pornography were downloaded in the county.

Dore said he was surprised to find that the cities where the most criminal activity was identified were St. Charles and Geneva.

Mosser had petitioned the Kane County Board for increased funding for resources to combat child exploitation. The board voted unanimously to support the funding.

Mosser said her office has received about $500,000 in funding for the unit, which brought on investigators Drew Uhlir and Kevin Reynolds, an additional prosecutor and the director of the Forensics Unit, Zeus Flores.

The sheriff’s office has dedicated five investigators, an evidence technician, two sergeants and a lieutenant to assist the unit.

Mosser said four prosecutors will be specifically trained on these types of investigations to ensure criminals are convicted after arrests are made.

The unit began investigating crimes in August 2022 and has since looked into 187 NCMEC tips, created 55 criminal investigations, served 91 search warrants and analyzed more than 100 devices. They have arrested and charged nine offenders with felonies and identified 40 minor victims.

Mosser highlighted an investigation by the unit that resulted in the arrest of an individual who was exploiting children not only in Kane County, but across the country and in Canada and England.

Mosser said the individual, who resided in unincorporated Elburn, was using explicit photos and videos of minors to extort more explicit content, which he distributed multinationally. She said the investigation resulted in an arrest in Kane County that has since been taken over by federal courts.

Undersheriff Amy Johnson, who attended the news conference in place of Sheriff Ron Hain, noted the rapid increase of these types of crimes and the need for the unit.

“We want to make sure these horrific crimes are solved and taken care of,” Johnson said. “This model has proved effective in eradicating our community of these most egregious offenders.”

Illinois Deputy Attorney General Tim Diamond spoke about how these types of crimes have evolved in recent years. He said as technology has grown, the job of investigators and prosecutors has become more specialized, difficult and involved.

Diamond said his office oversees the distribution of cyber tips to every county in Illinois besides Cook County.

“We don’t have enough resources to possibly track down every single one of these cyber tips,” Diamond said. “We welcome and we praise any help that we can get from the local state’s attorneys.”

Diamond deemed the unit a great asset to the county and to its citizens and welcomed Mosser to the fight on behalf of the Attorney General.

“We have dedicated our resources to making sure that the most vulnerable in our community are safe from these predators,” Mosser said.