Police hold high hopes for software
Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:38 pm
Police hold high hopes for software
By COLIN PERKEL
Canadian Press
TORONTO — A made-in-Canada computer system accessible to law-enforcement agencies across the country is providing enthusiastic police with a new high-tech weapon in the fight against the scourge of Internet child pornography.
Developed by Microsoft Canada at the request of a frustrated Toronto sex-crimes officer, the Child Exploitation Tracking System, or CETS, was officially launched Thursday.
The system is designed to help officers tie together and share huge amounts of information.
"If we can't adapt to technology like the predators are using to their advantage, we'll never get ahead of the crime," said RCMP Inspector Jennifer Strachan, head of the National Child Exploitation Co-ordination Centre in Ottawa.
The secure database housed at the centre contains information gathered from international sources as well as from investigating Canadian officers, allowing investigators to plug in an e-mail address, credit-card number or even an Internet alias and see what related information may be known.
"In these organized groups of pedophiles, those pieces of information are crucial," Insp. Strachan said. "CETS will be able to take that information and link it for us. You're rescuing that child that much faster."
The federal government also voiced its enthusiasm for the new system.
"Criminals are using the Internet at an unprecedented rate to exploit the most vulnerable of our society — our children," Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said.
"I commend Canadian law-enforcement and Microsoft Canada for their vision and leadership in creating a tool unlike any other in the world that will help keep our children safe from on-line predators."
The system will allow police agencies to track the progress of an investigation, eliminating the need for the laborious copying and mailing out of information to an officer who needs it.
The database will also contain a library with data on search warrants, court proceedings, case law and technology trends, and discussion areas where police can share expertise and ideas.
What it won't contain are actual images of child pornography, which are housed on a separate system.
CETS originated in January, 2003, when Det.-Sgt. Paul Gillespie of the Toronto police sex-crimes unit sent an e-mail to Bill Gates, chairman of software giant Microsoft Corp., in Redmond, Wash., asking for help in battling child pornography.
In what Sgt. Gillespie called a "bit of a miracle," Mr. Gates turned the matter over to Microsoft Canada, which has been working with police forces in Canada on its development.
"By collaborating with law enforcement and government agencies, we can use our combined expertise to better protect our children on-line," said David Hemler, president of Microsoft Canada.
The company has spent more than $4.5-million (Cdn.) on the system to date and about a dozen police services are already hooked up.
"It's a pretty good feeling," said Sgt. Gillespie of his brainchild's successful birth. "At the end of the day, it's all about the kids."
The Toronto Police Service, which has been testing the system through its development phase over the past two years, has had five successful links through CETS that have led to arrests.
The exploitation centre is now preparing to upload three huge files that implicate 6,000 individuals across Canada.
"I'm really curious to see some of the links we make that maybe we haven't made in the past just because we didn't have a tool to manipulate the information," said Insp. Strachan.
"In the past, we were just working in our little silos and going about our business, not having the ability to make those linkages."
The hope now is that more police forces both in and outside Canada will adopt the system, making the international effort in fighting child pornography more efficient and effective, Gillespie said.
"There is a great deal of enthusiasm."
[url=\"http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050407.gtcets0407/BNStory/Technology/\"]source: GlobeTechnology[/url]
By COLIN PERKEL
Canadian Press
TORONTO — A made-in-Canada computer system accessible to law-enforcement agencies across the country is providing enthusiastic police with a new high-tech weapon in the fight against the scourge of Internet child pornography.
Developed by Microsoft Canada at the request of a frustrated Toronto sex-crimes officer, the Child Exploitation Tracking System, or CETS, was officially launched Thursday.
The system is designed to help officers tie together and share huge amounts of information.
"If we can't adapt to technology like the predators are using to their advantage, we'll never get ahead of the crime," said RCMP Inspector Jennifer Strachan, head of the National Child Exploitation Co-ordination Centre in Ottawa.
The secure database housed at the centre contains information gathered from international sources as well as from investigating Canadian officers, allowing investigators to plug in an e-mail address, credit-card number or even an Internet alias and see what related information may be known.
"In these organized groups of pedophiles, those pieces of information are crucial," Insp. Strachan said. "CETS will be able to take that information and link it for us. You're rescuing that child that much faster."
The federal government also voiced its enthusiasm for the new system.
"Criminals are using the Internet at an unprecedented rate to exploit the most vulnerable of our society — our children," Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said.
"I commend Canadian law-enforcement and Microsoft Canada for their vision and leadership in creating a tool unlike any other in the world that will help keep our children safe from on-line predators."
The system will allow police agencies to track the progress of an investigation, eliminating the need for the laborious copying and mailing out of information to an officer who needs it.
The database will also contain a library with data on search warrants, court proceedings, case law and technology trends, and discussion areas where police can share expertise and ideas.
What it won't contain are actual images of child pornography, which are housed on a separate system.
CETS originated in January, 2003, when Det.-Sgt. Paul Gillespie of the Toronto police sex-crimes unit sent an e-mail to Bill Gates, chairman of software giant Microsoft Corp., in Redmond, Wash., asking for help in battling child pornography.
In what Sgt. Gillespie called a "bit of a miracle," Mr. Gates turned the matter over to Microsoft Canada, which has been working with police forces in Canada on its development.
"By collaborating with law enforcement and government agencies, we can use our combined expertise to better protect our children on-line," said David Hemler, president of Microsoft Canada.
The company has spent more than $4.5-million (Cdn.) on the system to date and about a dozen police services are already hooked up.
"It's a pretty good feeling," said Sgt. Gillespie of his brainchild's successful birth. "At the end of the day, it's all about the kids."
The Toronto Police Service, which has been testing the system through its development phase over the past two years, has had five successful links through CETS that have led to arrests.
The exploitation centre is now preparing to upload three huge files that implicate 6,000 individuals across Canada.
"I'm really curious to see some of the links we make that maybe we haven't made in the past just because we didn't have a tool to manipulate the information," said Insp. Strachan.
"In the past, we were just working in our little silos and going about our business, not having the ability to make those linkages."
The hope now is that more police forces both in and outside Canada will adopt the system, making the international effort in fighting child pornography more efficient and effective, Gillespie said.
"There is a great deal of enthusiasm."
[url=\"http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050407.gtcets0407/BNStory/Technology/\"]source: GlobeTechnology[/url]