Jim is self-employed as an international Paedophilia Consultant. One of his clients is the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC); Jim works with the NCMEC with the aim of creating and heightening the awareness of the public and the Police Service in the UK in relation to the UK Missing Children's Website (uk.missingkids.com), mentioned later in this report.
The NCMEC also employs Jim to represent their interests in the UK and Europe in relation to various initiatives where NCMEC's expertise/advice is sought.
Jim Reynolds also works as a private consultant in the area of dealing with paedophiles and the Internet. Formerly the founding head of Scotland Yard's Paedophile Unit, and the police officer who set up the Computer Unit for Paedophiles (now run by Steve Quick, whom I had met the previous day), Jim is now an advisor on many fronts; he has a most distinguished career in this field.
Jim began his meeting with me by speaking about the National High Tech Crime Unit which earlier in the day John Carr had mentioned. The unit has been set up on Canary Wharf in London and is staffed by police from the National Crime Squad, Customs Officers and personnel from other law enforcement agencies. Their remit is of course wider than Internet abuse and young people, including such other crimes as hacking and fraud.
Jim noted that he had advised the newly set up unit that it was important to deal as quickly as possible with their first high profile paedophile cases, so that the unit's high capability became widely known.
Jim spoke of the background to the need for this kind of special unit. A couple of years ago during an operation code-named 'Cathedral' ('Wonderland'), which involved international paedophile activity, the importance of that specialist agency became clear because of the widespread and international nature of the enquiry.
Jim reiterated an observation earlier made by John Carr, that only recently in the UK has there been anything close to a national police force as compared to a focus on local police areas. England and Wales have 43 Police Forces, and senior officers (Chief Constable level) are members of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) which meets regularly, and seeks to ensure commonality of action among all 43 Police Forces. And of course there are the National Crime Squad and the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS). There is also a realisation that a more unified front is required, especially in dealing with the Internet.
The ACPO is extremely influential. Various members of this committee take over particular portfolios at a national level. Five to six years ago the ACPO realised the police needed computer training. Jim was asked to set up a working party to give guidance to the ACPO and as a result a handbook was written and issued to every police force in the UK. Jim noted it was about only the basic ground rules, but these were extremely important as evidence was being lost when police finding computers, mishandled the evidence or allowed the offender to do so. However, only recently have the National Crime Squad and the National Intelligence Service been set up as part of the realisation that more and more specialist units are required now days.
Jim has also done work associated with the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany. The Bertelsmann group has produced a book on the self-regulating Internet industry which would be of interest in New Zealand. Jim stressed again the importance of data being shared at a national and international level, and that all police be fully informed about information and procedures.
One of the issues we discussed was that of privacy and the Internet. Jim felt strongly that ISP's should retain data, despite what civil libertarians believe. He stated that it is also important for technical reasons e.g. there are both static and non-static addresses and offenders often used non-static ones so that records need to be kept for billing purposes. Jim's comment was "common sense dictates that data be kept for a reasonable period of time for police to assess the records for the furtherance of investigations". He also stated "If we live in a caring society all people should be involved in the safety of children." - this encapsulates what all those of us involved in Internet safety feel about the importance of our work.
As a Board member of the UK Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), Jim is also active in the IWF Hotline, to which concerned members of the public may complain about illegal/inappropriate material accessed by them or their families. This IWF Hotline is the equivalent of the US Cyber-Tip run through the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. The IWF seeks to combat child pornography, protect children online and work with the Internet industry to achieve these objectives.
The Internet Watch Foundation felt is was very important that complaints and tips were not made only to ISP's because some cases needed to be dealt with by the authorities who can carry proper investigation and possible prosecution. Both Nigel Williams and Jim are involved in International Hotline Providers in Europe (Inhope), which in broad terms may be described as a European extension of the IWF Hotline concept, and Jim is the organisation's law enforcement advisor. He was initially employed by Inhope to give advice but is now funded by NCMEC to carry out this work.
Re the range of expertise available in various countries, Jim noted that it varies greatly. Some countries will not even admit there is a problem with the Internet, so there is a need to raise awareness about the issues.
The whole project of victim ID is worked on by Childnet, with funding from the European Union. So little is known, though, about who is working on what; there is little sharing of information, although various groups talk of having databases. However, the data bases which do exist are all different and not co-ordinated. An example of one such database is that in the University College of Cork at which Jim is an honorary member of staff, as a lecturer. Staff there carry out research into Internet use in situations where children are abused.
As Jim noted, everybody says they want a database, leading to a proliferation of databases, but again, they are not co-ordinated. Although Interpol would be the logical group to be the main organising body, country representation must be by the right people, and where they meet must be seen as a 'serious venue'. As well, it must include non-police organisations e.g. the University College of Cork.
The US National Centre for Exploited and Missing Children is a major international player, partly because it is funded and officially designated by Congress to do that work. The Centre has a web site and the capability to upload photos of missing children. Jim had been given the opportunity to evaluate such a project and spoke with the ACPO about it, gaining their approval for such a site to be introduced in the UK for use by Police. However, it was at that point that Jim retired from the police force. The US National Centre for Exploited and Missing Children wanted this project to continue so they asked Jim to do it on their behalf, becoming his first client. His job is to promote the UK web site so that it is accepted nationally, as referred to earlier in this report.
As regards the international situation, in Jim's opinion, the situation of Spain and several other Mediterranean countries which have two separate law enforcement groups, both effective units but they are not co-ordinated, is a sad loss of the
