CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- The Internet provides predators access to child pornography in the comfort and secrecy of their home, and police say it takes way too long to bring these offenders to justice.
The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force members want to cut down their investigation time of online predators. They say the key to administrative subpoena privileges is giving the task force the power to subpoena Internet providers to identify suspected offenders and their Web history.
Currently, police have to go through the local prosecutor's or the U.S. attorney's offices first for the subpoena, which takes considerable time. Police said the process would be sped up if that power was in their hands.
State troopers say this issue has been brought up in the Legislature before, but it never made it out of committee. There have been similar discussions in other state legislatures to allow certain police agencies to have subpoena power.