Arlington Police Launch MySpace Page
Online presence is part of effort to stop predators

ARLINGTON, VA

The Arlington County Police Department is expanding its efforts to protect children from online predators. Today Police Chief Doug Scott announced the Department now has a page on MySpace.com. Police hope children who use the popular social networking site will add the ACPD to their list of “top friends” to discourage predators from contacting them.

“We don’t want to mislead any kids or their parents into thinking this will completely protect them online,” said Chief Scott. “But if they add a link to our page, hopefully the police emblem will scare off anyone with unscrupulous motives.”

According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, one in seven youths between the ages of 10 and 17 has been sexually solicited or approached online.

The Arlington Police Department’s Special Victims Unit aggressively investigates child predator cases. On March 20, an eleven month investigation by an SVU detective assigned to the regional Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force resulted in the arrest of a Swedish national who traveled to Arlington to meet a teenage girl. One week later, a Baltimore man was convicted in Arlington of soliciting a minor online and the jury recommended he serve 11 years and 5 months in prison.

“The MySpace page complements our investigative work.” said SVU Lieutenant Brett Butler. “It is a proactive way to help us keep these predators away from our children.”

The ACPD’s MySpace page includes links to information about internet safety and crime prevention. There are also links to the Department’s official website, Arlington’s Most Wanted page and Arlington Crime Solvers. Visitors to the page can send email messages to the Department or report crimes and drug activity using online forms.

College interns in the Criminal Investigations Section designed the MySpace page and they will continue to help monitor and maintain it. The web address is www.myspace.com/acpdmyspace.