The Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) will provide the Champaign Police Department with a grant to combat child sexual predators.

COPS provided the $496,732 grant through their Child Sexual Predator Program. This project is one of 26 in the nation that will receive funding, said Jeffrey B. Lang, acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of Illinois.

Seven other police departments will equally share the federal grant money: Bloomington, Decatur, Mattoon, Moline, Peoria and Quincy police departments and the Peoria County sheriff's office.

Lang commended the police departments which will be utilizing the funds. “The track record of successes by these agencies was one of the important factors giving rise to this significant grant,” Lang said.

The participating departments and office's investigations and prosecutions track record under Project Safe Childhood was played a role in receiving the grant. Each agency will be provided the resources to perform computer forensics at their departments, as well as in the field, and to work undercover on the Internet to combat child sexual exploitation.

The United States Marshal’s Service is also participating by helping to locate sex offenders who fail to register, but they are not receiving funds.

“The funding will provide the law enforcement agencies with additional tools to enforce sex-offender registration laws, identify those child predators, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” Lang explained.