Kelowna, B.C. RCMP establish new unit as child exploitation cases on the rise

Kelowna Mounties arrested one man last week in what they’ve described as an increasingly common type of investigation — child exploitation.

The man is now facing a charge of possession of child pornography, RCMP said, though he’s not currently in custody.

It’s an increasingly common problem according to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which has reported national increases in accessing and possessing child pornography in the past three years.

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“Kelowna has not been spared and the local RCMP have also seen an increase in this type of criminal activity,” RCMP said.

“As a result of the growing prevalence of these cases the Kelowna RCMP created a dedicated investigative team of police officers called the Internet Child Exploitation Unit, to identify, pursue and disrupt offenders of these crimes.”

It’s the second dedicated detachment-based unit of its kind within the B.C. RCMP. Until recently, in Kelowna, officers conducted these investigations in concert with the BC Integrated Child Exploitation Unit.

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“This newly-created team of specially-trained investigators works with BC ICE to investigate all aspects of these crimes,” Cpl James Jenkins with the Kelowna ICE Unit said.

“With the growing demand for online material that sexually exploits children, the Kelowna ICE Unit’s goals are to ensure children are note being actively offended against, identify and remove images from the internet, and successfully prosecute those who access, produce, and traffic in this material,”

If you have information about child sexual exploitation, visit www.cybertip.ca or call Kelowna RCMP at 250-762-3300.