WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

House unanimously approves Sawyer bill to fund child pornography task force

OLYMPIA – Late last night the House of Representatives unanimously passed Rep. David Sawyer’s (D – Lakewood) bill to fund the state Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

Last year, the task force received more than 17,000 leads. These leads were all potential cases of children being abused and exploited, and depictions of their abuse shared over the Internet. But because of funding, the task force was only able to pursue 2 percent — that’s 340 leads.

These aren’t just cases of child pornography. Law enforcement knows that the majority of child porn traffickers are hands-on offenders — in other words, child rapists.

“This conversation is not something we like to have, but it’s something we need to face,” Sawyer said. “On its surface this bill is about child pornography, but this bill is really about rescuing victimized children.”

Sawyer’s House Bill 1281 would provide a dedicated funding source for the task force by placing a $1,000 fine on every pornographic depiction in possession of the child pornography trafficker.

“With the use of technology and our investigative tools, we can now intervene to rescue kids,” Sawyer said. “No matter how small you think our government should be or what you think our purpose is, if we do have a purpose it should be this. Rescuing kids is it.”

Sawyer’s bill will now go to the Senate for consideration.