PROVIDENCE – The General Assembly passed legislation last week expanding law enforcement authority during investigations of internet child pornography.
Under the new law, law enforcement agencies can use subpoenas to compel internet service providers to release identifying information about internet users suspected of violating state laws banning child pornography, cyberstalking and other cybercrimes.
Currently, state and local agencies can only acquire this information with search warrants, which take much longer to obtain. Federal courts have ruled that using subpoenas in these situations, as federal agencies and other states already do, does not violate constitutional search and seizure rights, according to a General Assembly news release.
“We need to give law enforcement the tools they need to keep up with advances in cybercrimes and to find and prosecute the people who perpetrate them,” said Rep. Peter Martin, D-Newport, the bill’s sponsor in the House. “I am very confident this bill will help in the fight against Internet child pornography without any abuse of anyone’s rights.”
The legislation, written in cooperation with the R.I. State Police and the State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, was sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Beatrice Lanzi, D-Cranston.
