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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A territorial spat between the FBI and the Utah Attorney General's Office has forced the break up of a state-federal task force that cracked down on Internet sex crimes.
In a letter, the FBI said it is dropping out of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force -- known as ICAC -- but failed to state a reason, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said. Shurtleff said he is assuming the decision is linked to the relocation of state investigators from FBI offices to a state facility, where security is less restrictive.
Salt Lake's FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Tim Fuhrman acknowledges the security difficulty, but said there were other complications to remaining part of the task force, including the FBI's own federal Internet crime initiative, Innocent Images.
"We just couldn't accommodate the restrictions that exist within Innocent Images with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force," Fuhrman said. "I wish we could have worked it out."
Although the FBI is dropping out of the joint task force, Fuhrman said that doesn't mean the agency is relaxing its efforts to fight Internet sex crimes.
We're not part of that task force, but we're going to continue working with them," Fuhrman said. "They're not going to be side by side with us doing the same things."
Formed in 2000, ICAC has arrested about 200 people for using the Internet to arrange sexual encounters with minors. In 2002, the task was awarded the FBI Director's Award as the best Internet sex crimes unit nationwide.
Shurtleff said he's disappointed by the FBI's decision, which coincided with a decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office to revoked federal deputization of Assistant Attorney General Paul Amman, who had been filing Internet crime cases in U.S. District Court.
U.S. Attorney for Utah Paul Warner said the move came as a result of "differences in philosophy" with Shurtleff's prosecutors over how Internet sex-crime cases are to be handled.
Shurtleff's office will continue to pursue Internet cases in state court, however, penalties for conviction of state charges are less severe then those in federal court.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
