POLICE ASSOCIATION OF NOVA SCOTIA 93 In 2003, Toronto police detective Paul Gillespie thought there must be a better way to catch criminals who trafficked in child pornography. The Internet was giving child pornographers new ways to find and exploit children, and Gillespie could see that law enforcement officials were far behind the technology curve. "With the Internet, the bad guys had figured out a better way to hide their tracks while committing crime at new levels," said Gillespie, who has since retired from the police force. "Law enforcement hadn't learned how to use the Internet to gain the upper hand." Determined to do what he could to stop the growth of child porn, Gillespie sent letters and e-mail messages to corporations and government agencies. One landed on the desk of Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft Corporation. Gates passed along the note to Microsoft Canada and asked for its assistance in developing a tool to help fight child pornography. Microsoft Canada software engineers worked with Gillespie, the Toronto Police Service Sex Crimes Unit, and other law enforcement agencies to understand how child pornographers were taking advantage of the openness and anonymity of the Internet. With that information in hand, the engineers then created a tool to help law enforcement officers apprehend pornographers. The result: the Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS), built on Microsoft technology, was unveiled in April 2005. CETS helped law enforcement agencies follow hundreds of suspects at a time and eliminate duplicated work, making it much easier for them to follow up on leads, collect evidence, and build cases against suspected child pornographers. Even during beta testing, CETS proved its value by helping police investigate a man accused of sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl. CETS also figured prominently in the March 2006 arrest of 27 people in four countries who operated a private chat room to groom vulnerable children. CETS produces impressive results Since 2004, Toronto police officers have used CETS in their investigations, resulting in 64 arrests and the identification of 43 victims worldwide. "CETS really helps identify the non-obvious connections that can lead to a child pornographer and that humans could never identify on their own," said Gillespie, who now works as a consultant on Internet child safety for Microsoft and other corporate and government entities. CETS has grown from a Canadian law enforcement tool to one that is now global in scale. In April 2006, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), which works across the United Kingdom, made CETS part of its enforcement arsenal. The results were immediate. By October 2006, CETS was credited with helping police in the United Kingdom arrest 37 suspects and rescue five children. "In the past, police officers simply didn't understand the Internet — it was a labyrinth to them," Jim Gamble, chief executive officer of CEOP, told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). "But now we are upstream of [online pedophiles] and awaiting their next move." LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS AROUND THE WORLD TRACK DOWN ONLINE PREDATORS WITH THE CHILD EXPLOITATION TRACKING SYSTEM (CETS) Microsoft technology helps in fight against child pornography (cont’d...)
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