FORT MYERS, Fla. - Your every click, keystroke or E-mail may be under surveillance. There are now more eyes watching the internet, looking for people preying on children. And these extra resources will be focused here in Southwest Florida.
"If you've learned nothing from watching the TV shows, 'To Catch a Predator,' if you have learned nothing to this date, you are never talking to who you think you're talking to on a computer," Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Cameron said.
The FBI's Innocent Images Task Force based in Fort Myers is expanding, meaning online stings will happen more often, making the internet a safer place. It has four new partnerships: Cape Coral Police, Clewiston Police, Marco Island Police, and the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. That's in addition to current partners: the Lee County Sheriff's Office, Collier County Sheriff's Office, and the Fort Myers FBI Office.
"It's essentially strength in numbers," FBI Special Agent John Kuchta said. "It's a force multiplier. It's that many more persons dedicating hours and time to combating child sexual exploitation."
Kuchta says investigators are scouring chat rooms, bulletin boards, and peer-to-peer networks on the hunt for predators trying to take advantage of children.
"They bring to us, resources that we would not necessarily have available," Kuchta said.
"They can be anywhere," Cameron said. "They can be communicating with kids in our community, or predators in our community can be talking to kids in Palm Beach County or in Ohio."
Sheriff Cameron signed the agreement Thursday, and is dedicating one full-time investigator to the Task Force. "My caution to the people who are looking at images on computers is, while my detective might be a handsome, he is very cute, and maybe even sexy, he is not a 13 year-old girl," Cameron said.
The FBI Innocent Images Task Force is seeking information on the current whereabouts of John Anderson Shinault, a white male, 6'4", 225 lbs, date of birth August 21, 1952. A Federal arrest warrant was issued on October 14, 2011 for Shinault for Distribution of Child Pornography. Persons with information concerning Shinault should contact the FBI at (813) 253-1000.
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