Fight against child pornography: "Somebody has to do it"

The last major success in the fight against child pornography was not long ago.

Not even two months.

289 investigators searched 32 suspect objects over three days.

Secure storage media, take cell phones with you, and carry out boxes of papers.

Simply anything that could provide information about the size of the group that is suspected of having exchanged child pornographic material via so-called file hosting services.

The proceedings were led by the Hessian Public Prosecutor's Office in cooperation with the State Criminal Police Office.

Katharina Iskandar

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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But the real work only begins after the searches: the material has to be evaluated.

Officials will have to look at it.

Sequence after sequence.

It's almost unbearable.

In this case, infants and young children were “severely abused”.

That is the police phrase for "raped".

Again and again officials report that one can hardly stand these pictures.

Actually only by trying to fade out what is happening there “as a person”.

And only be an investigator.

After all, it is the task to find the perpetrators so that they can answer in front of a court.

To do this, you have to have access to the material.

And then this sentence often comes up: Somebody has to do it.

In Hesse it is the BAO Focus officials.

A special investigation team that works closely with the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime of the Attorney General's Office.

The unit has existed since October 2020.

“Focus” stands for “Cross-case organizational structure against child pornography and sexual abuse of children”.

The position is located in the Hessian State Criminal Police Office in Wiesbaden, there are now subdivisions in all Hessian police headquarters - with a total of 156 investigators.

Deserved more appreciation

The officers quietly work through their procedures, they don't make a big issue of what they have to expect on a daily basis. However, a discussion has now arisen about their work and what they are doing. The Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter (BDK) is demanding more money from the State of Hesse for these officers in the form of an allowance. Specifically, the criminal police agency would like 150 euros more for officials who work in the field of child pornography. The police also have allowances in other departments with particularly stressful activities. For example with the special forces or the homicide squad.

The regional chairman of the BDK, Dirk Peglow, refers to regulations in North Rhine-Westphalia, where child pornography investigators have been paid more money for several months. It is "astonishing that the introduction of a monthly allowance of even 300 euros for the North Rhine-Westphalian interior minister was apparently no problem," says Peglow. In Hesse he misses efforts to do this. “The colleagues who have to deal every day with the infliction of unimaginable suffering to children deserve more appreciation than the lip service that the police and political leadership repeatedly put forward.” Peglow also refers to the workload caused by a sharp increase in the number of cases. The increase in child pornography is worrying. "None of us knowwhat long-term health consequences it has if officers have to expose themselves to these images and videos over a longer period of time. "

In fact, the number of child pornography proceedings in Hesse has risen.

The latest crime statistics for 2020 showed 1449 cases.

That is 44.5 percent more than in the previous year.

The number could now rise again, because the work of the BAO Fokus initiated several major investigations this year alone.

"Highest priority"

The Ministry of the Interior knows about the desire for an allowance - and is not averse, but sees a different time frame. There have already been talks between Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU), the BDK and officials from BAO Fokus. So far without result. A spokesman for the ministry said on request that the demands were known and that the matter was also being examined. You will probably first have to look at the entire allowance system before a decision can be made on individual further payments. "But those who are particularly stressed and perform special must then also be considered." The Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter, however, does not do this quickly enough.

At the beginning of October, one year after the founding of BAO Fokus, Interior Minister Beuth presented a comprehensive balance sheet. He said the fight against child pornography had "top priority" in Hesse. Around 1,300 searches were carried out, 18 arrest warrants were carried out and 22,663 data carriers were seized. The officials have identified around 780 suspects. They are either accused of having abused children themselves, or they are said to have exchanged child and youth pornography. "Anyone who sexually abuses children must be uncompromisingly fought with all the power of the state," said Beuth.

In the near future, it will be even easier to identify offenders.

The Hessian State Criminal Police Office and the Presidium for Technology are currently jointly developing a forensics platform to further improve the fight against child pornography.

Four million euros are available for the program.

However, the data that are secured during searches of the accused must still be evaluated.

From real police officers.