Last week’s Smoky Mountain News cover story, completed before the events of Tuesday, Sept. 11, explored the need for a new kind of crime fighter — one equipped to catch and convict those who use the computer and the Internet to swindle adults and sexually prey on children.

Despite the tragedies of the past week, and perhaps because of them, this is a subject lawmakers and law enforcement still need to improve upon.

The fact of the matter is that local police and district attorneys do not have the personnel to investigate these crimes. Whether it is a more traditional robbery where information may be stored on a hard drive, a computer fraud case where items are sold via the Internet and never delivered, or a child solicitation case where an adult met a juvenile over the Internet, police in this region have to rely on the state and the federal government for help.

And these entities themselves are strapped. An FBI agent in Charlotte told us the nation’s premier crime-fighting organization is having to redefine itself in order to keep abreast of the new wave of technology. Not only are computer specialists who can retrieve data from hard drives being trained, but older agents are having to learn how to use the computer as they investigate everyday crimes. It is a tool that modern law enforcement can’t do without.

Southwestern Community College in Webster, as in many cases, is leading the way. Two of its instructors — one from criminal justice, the other from information systems — recognized this need for a new kind of law enforcement officer and won approval from the state system of community colleges for a cyber crime curriculum.

Graduates of this two-year associate’s program will have the ability to do what many law enforcement agencies can’t — get necessary data off computers. They will also, however, be trained in the more traditional criminal investigation techniques, so they should be huge assets to local police. Hopefully some of them will stay right here in WNC and put their skills to the test.

The notion of having technologically savvy people in law enforcement is reassuring. As criminals change the way they do business, those responsible for protecting us from them must also change.

 

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The Smoky Mountain News