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Dakota County Goes High Tech To Fight Crime

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Dakota County Sheriff's office has created a Electronic Crimes Task Force, dedicated to solving crimes on the Internet, such as a recent "swatting" incident in Woodbury.

Captain Jim Rogers says the problem continues to grow and change.

"Back in 2003, a 20 or 40 gigabyte hard drive was big, now we are talking about terabyte hard drives," Rogers said.

Dakota Co. Fights Internet Crime

Dakota County also just got a grant to use technology to solve cases of violence against women. Sheriff Tim Leslie says it allows them to monitor and enforce protection orders.

"We think those are sometimes predictors of future criminal and violent behavior," Leslie said.

He says many times, the judge orders the abuser to have no contact with the victim. This allows them to track what's going on, and stop a violent incident.

Leslie says with the advances in technology, the first thing that investigators do when looking at a crime scene is to take the cellphones.

"It's basically an electronic diary," Leslie said.

They look at phone calls, pictures and texts, trying to find clues about the person's actions.

"We want closure for the victims and we want to bring people to justice," Leslie said.

But there is a bit of a down side.

Dakota Co. Fights Internet Crime – Part 2

"Law enforcement lags behind society when it comes to social media," he said.

Sometimes they have been late to react or late to get to the game, thus the need for this task force.

There are police officers from various departments within the county, and several sheriff's detectives working crimes as well.

"Rather than everyone having to put together their own electronic crime unit, and spending $40,000 or $50,000 in equipment and training, we'll do it in one room," Leslie said.

He calls it an "untamed" frontier, where they hope to begin being more proactive instead of waiting for cases to come to them. Instead, they will get out and look for electronic crimes, such as pornography.

Leslie also encourages parents to keep a close eye on their children because they often are well-versed in cyber space and will take actions that they don't think are harmful.

"Take a look at their cellphones and if you need help, call," Leslie said.

The task force is set up inside the Dakota County Law Enforcement Center in Hastings.

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