FISHERS — Each year, countless children across the United States are victims of internet sex crimes. One interagency task force headquartered in Fishers continues to work to keep children safe.
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Finding online child predators and bringing them to justice can often be a tall task for law enforcement.
"It's just weeks, months of just sending out subpoenas, search warrants to find out who is actually behind that computer on there because we don't know who it is at the very beginning. All we have is an IP, and that's usually it," Lt. Doug Baker with the Internet Crimes Against Children, ICAC, Task Force explained.
The Hamilton County Metro ICAC Task Force has been tackling this work for nearly two decades.
Made up of detectives from nine different agencies - including police departments from Fishers, Carmel, Westfield, Noblesville, and more - it marks a massive interagency effort in the fight against internet sex crimes against children.
The multi-county approach provides significant advantages for investigations.
"Since we cover four different counties with the Madison County, Hamilton County, Hancock, and Tipton are our four counties, it helps having officers from those agencies to help us in our own accounting. They know the roads. They know the people in there. They know prior runs," said Lt. Baker.
Those efforts have only become more needed. According to the ICAC Task Force, they had 612 cyber tips in 2025, compared to 427 in 2024.
The technical challenges continue to evolve as criminals use more sophisticated methods to hide their activities. Detectives are learning advanced techniques to access encrypted devices and gather evidence.
"Basically, my guys, detectives are learning how to hack into these devices to try to find out what's inside to make sure we have the proof of the crime," Lt. Baker explained. "Who has access to the phone, you know, he got a passcode on it. Nobody knows his passcode but him. So stuff like that is what we look for."
Recently, the agency announced the arrest of a Pendleton man, now facing 91 years in prison, for child molestation, child exploitation and child sex abuse material charges.
The task force wants the community to know that law enforcement is actively pursuing these crimes and working to protect children from online predators.
"I want them to know that law enforcement is going after these crimes. They're going after solicitations who are going after your kids and trying to groom them online. Know that we are out there. We are working," Lt. Baker reassured. "It is a very time-consuming process. This is not something that happens within a couple of weeks or even a couple of months. So no, we are doing it, but it just takes a lot of time, and please have patience with us as we work through it."
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