SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 52
(By Senators Kessler, Browning, Foster, Jenkins, Laird, Minard,
Palumbo, Snyder, Stollings, Williams, Yost, Barnes and Deem)
[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary]
Requesting the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to study the need
to designate the State Police Crimes Against Children unit as
the entity charged with issuing administrative subpoenas for
child pornography investigations in order to connect an IP
address to a physical location which can be further
investigated in order to obtain a search warrant or an arrest
warrant.
Whereas, viewing child pornography and soliciting minors via
the internet is a growing problem in West Virginia; and
Whereas, the State Police Crimes Against Children unit
monitors the internet usage in West Virginia in an attempt to
protect children from harm; and
Whereas, monitoring internet usage allows the State Police to
recover certain IP addresses of computers that are viewing or
transmitting child pornography or involved in the solicitation of
minors; and
Whereas, the State Police do not have the ability to connect
an IP address to a physical location without assistance from an Internet Service Provider; and
Whereas, the current process requires the State Police to
obtain a subpoena from a court before the Internet Service Provider
will provide the physical location to the State Police or utilize
federal statutes; and
Whereas, the additional time required to obtain the subpoena
from a court may cause a delay during the time, namely the first
hour, when most abducted children are killed by their abductor; and
Whereas, the Internet Service Providers are already
cooperating with federal law enforcement through similar subpoenas;
therefore, be it
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Joint Committee on the Judiciary is hereby requested
to study the process currently used to investigate child
pornography and other child-related internet crimes, as well as how
the additional tool of an administrative subpoena by the State
Police will effect that process; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Joint Committee on the Judiciary
report to the regular session of the Legislature in 2011 on its
findings, conclusions and recommendations, together with drafts of
any legislation necessary to effectuate its recommendations; and,
be it
Further Resolved, That expenses necessary to conduct this
study, to prepare a report and to draft necessary legislation be paid from legislative appropriations to the Joint Committee on the
Judiciary.