ICE Launches Smartphone App To Locate Child Sex Predators
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thursday announced a new smartphone app that enlists the public's help to locate child predators and rescue children from sexual abuse and exploitation.
ICE's Operation Predator App, the first of its kind in federal law enforcement, is available for free at the iTunes store.
Users can receive alerts about wanted predators and also provide information to HSI by calling or submitting an online tip.
It also contains photos and information about known fugitives in Homeland Security criminal cases involving sexually abused and exploited children.
Officials hope the app will help them identify a man who appears in videos obtained by Los Angeles Homeland Security agents executing a search warrant earlier this year.
"In those videos, the man is sexually abusing a 10- to 12-year-old girl. The suspect, whose name and whereabouts are unknown, is believed to be living somewhere in the United States or Canada, but he could be anywhere in the world," ICE said.
The suspect is described as a bearded, blue-eyed man with short brown hair and glasses.
"He and the girl are in a wood-paneled room with framed photos, a black computer, a desk with a sewing machine and brown patterned curtains," officials said.
ICE hopes to expand the app to other smartphones in the near future.
