Grant to help fight internet crimes against Kansas children

District Attorney Marc Bennett said Wednesday that internet crimes have increased so much that Wichita police have gone from needing a space the size of a cubicle to run investigations to having a dedicated team.

Bennett and other officials on Wednesday announced a roughly $342,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to help fund a Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office detective and Wichita Police Department detective in the Kansas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

“I think this is an example of how the system is supposed to work,” Bennett said, adding that the grant is the effort of multiple levels of government. “The infrastructure is here, but now the federal dollars can come in and supplement and augment what we are able to do here.”

Bennett, Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter, Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay, Child Advocacy Center Executive Director Diana Schunn and U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) all attended the announcement.

“What I learned in my visit (to the Child Advocacy Center). . . is that the amount of child abuse, the abductions and the use of the Internet is exasperated by COVID-19,” said Moran, who chairs the House subcommittee that funds the Department of Justice. “They are more susceptible . . . the crimes that are perpetrated against children are increasing dramatically as a result of the circumstances we are in.”

Schunn said the grant could be renewed.

This story was originally published November 25, 2020 at 7:50 PM.