ICAC stands for Internet Crimes Against Children. The Central California ICAC Task Force was formed in 2007 and is one of 61 ICAC task forces in the United States. The ICAC system was created in order to combat the growing threat to children by use of the Internet. The federal government oversees this project with the Department of Justice. Specifically, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). The Fresno County Sheriff's Office (FSO) applied for grant monies to start the task force in 2007. FSO became the lead agency to administer the grant and reports results back to the Federal Government. Several other agencies joined shortly thereafter. In 2008, the Central California ICAC Task Force has since extended to 68 affiliated law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies. The Central California ICAC is currently housed in downtown Fresno at the Fresno Homeland Security Investigations Office.

The Task Force conducts investigations within the Eastern District of California as well as working with federal agencies and ICAC Task Forces throughout the United States. The Central California ICAC Task Force investigates persons using the Internet to attempt to engage in sexual contact with underage children, persons who send children web camera feeds of, or files displaying sexual acts, and persons who download or distribute CSAM files using email or file-sharing networks. The Task Force also conducts education for children, adults, and community groups to help them learn to be safer on the Internet and thereby reducing online victimization.

The Central California ICAC Task Force provides agencies with the training and resources to conduct proactive and reactive investigations of Internet crimes involving children. These proactive investigations allow investigators to arrest child predators before they have the opportunity to hurt a child.

The Central California ICAC Task Force is dedicated to locating, identifying, and arresting those who prey upon our children, or those who sexually exploit our children through the use of technology.

In 1998, the United States Department of Justice began an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, tasked with the ever-growing problem involving the sexual exploitation of children via the internet. The ICAC Task Force laid the foundation for what would become a nationwide partnership of law enforcement agencies with the mission of protecting children online. Currently there are 61 ICAC Task Forces located across the United States representing over 3,000 federal, state, and local law enforcement, and prosecutorial agencies. Since its inception, the ICAC Task Force program has investigated over 280,000 complaints of alleged child sexual exploitation and arrested over 30,000 individuals.

The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office serves as the lead agency for the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Central California ICAC is comprised of sixty eight (68) affiliated Federal, State, and Local law enforcement agencies serving over three (3) million citizens in a nine (9) county area of Central California. The nine (9) counties include Kern, Tulare, Kings, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Mariposa, Inyo, and San Luis Obispo. Central California ICAC is responsible for conducting both reactive and proactive investigations.

One of the primary missions of each ICAC Task Force involves reaching out to other agencies in our respective parts of the country to help establish an internet presence and to build capacity and expertise in this area. In so doing, we create an even larger network of law enforcement agencies capable of dealing with online threats and exploitation. The lead agency for each Task Force works in conjunction with the law enforcement agencies within its own jurisdiction, but also works cooperatively with the other task forces across the country when a particular offense, such as the transmission of CSAM for example, crosses traditional jurisdictional boundaries.

Because each Task Force is permanently established and task force members meet regularly at national working group conferences, we are able to combine resources quickly when a case demands it.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) interacts regularly with ICAC offices, and provides assistance during investigations where the suspect has solicited young victims from throughout the United States and other countries. The partnership between NCMEC and all ICAC Task Forces nationwide is essential to protecting society’s most innocent victims, our children. Anyone having information regarding online sexual exploitation of children should report this information to NCMEC via the CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org. For more information regarding NCMEC, please visit www.missingkids.com

We conduct a myriad of investigations. We conduct investigations by referral from parents, children, other agencies and Cybertips from The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

The list below shows some of the investigations we conduct: