Peel’s ICE unit holding the line against surge in online child exploitation 

The Internet Child Exploitation Unit at Peel Police had several notable successes last year.

• Stopping a man who was victimizing numerous women, including a young girl in Northern Canada, as well as secretly filming over a dozen female co-workers and family members 

• Uncovering an “elaborate computer setup” in a man’s backyard shed containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and charging him with obstructing police after officers caught him trying to destory it

• Deploying the force’s Electronic Storage Detection Canine in 29 search warrants. The K9 officer helped uncover 44 hidden devices, some of which included CSAM. The K9 office also helped discover an electronic tracking tag that had been placed on the car of a victim of intimate partner violence without her knowledge

• Using undercover techniques, the ICE unit worked alongside Peel Police’s Human Trafficking Unit to identify men looking to exploit underage human trafficking victims. The investigation, Project Juno, led to the arrest of 10 men in five days. 

• ICE identified 16 victims, while down from 2023, is still an increase from pre-2022 numbers.

It’s an impressive list of accomplishments, especially when considering the startlingly low number of staff who accomplished it. 

The ICE unit is comprised of only ten people, and for years has only had one team member who does undercover work targeting those who attempt to lure children online. The unit handles nearly three new reports of CSAM or luring in Peel every single day and dealt with 920 reports in 2024, 656 of which came from the National Child Exploitation Crime Centre (NCECC), operated by the RCMP. This is up from 156 NCECC referrals in 2018. 

The NCECC is the intake for reports of CSAM from across the continent, many from the National Centre for Mississauga and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States, which are then distributed to the police jurisdiction where the offence is believed to have occurred. 

In total, Peel’s ICE unit laid 131 charges and 39 people were arrested. 

It is here the signs of strain are starting to show. The 39 people arrested represents a 17 percent drop from 2019. In the five years prior to 2020, Peel’s ICE unit arrested, on average, 47 offenders annually. As previously reported by The Pointer, due to the resources allocated to the unit, this was basically the highest number they could expect due to the investigative requirements for each case. But since 2020, that average number of arrests has dropped to an average of about 37 people. 

“This is a provincial wide trend, and not something that is isolated to our Region,” the 2024 Peel Police Persons at Risk Report highlights. “This is generally attributed to the increase in the amount of work that must be done on each case due to resources and technical legal hurdles that must be overcome with each investigation.”

The report points to a 2024 Supreme Court of Canada decision that extended privacy provisions to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

“As a result, the NCECC must now obtain judicial authorization before forwarding NCMEC reports to the appropriate police services, increasing workload and delaying case referrals.”  

As cases involving CSAM and child luring continue to increase in number, any delays can impact the ICE unit’s ability to catch child predators. 

According to Statistics Canada data: between 2014 and 2022, there were 45,816 incidents of online child pornography in Canada. Over the same time period the rate of police-reported incidents of child exploitation and abuse have nearly tripled and the rate of online child pornography almost quadrupled from 32 incidents per 100,000 children and youth in 2014 to 125 incidents per 100,000 in 2022.

Online luring is another crime increasing at disturbing rates, surging 69% between 2014 and 2022. In 2022, luring accounted for three-quarters (75%) of online sexual offences against children.

The troubling reality is CSAM and other online crimes involving children are drastically underreported. 

“[This] can be partially attributed to the limited ability of young, dependent children to report, or even recognize, online sexual abuse. In these cases, reporting often depends on an adult bringing the offence to the attention of police,” a Statistics Canada report details. “It is difficult to quantify the true prevalence of online child sexual exploitation in Canada using only police-reported statistics.”

All types of online sexual exploitation of children are on the rise in Canada.

(Statistics Canada)

In order to prevent the unit from being overwhelmed with its crushing workload, the report notes the unit’s “intention” is to increase its complement of officers. 

“For several years, the ICE Unit has only had a single designated online undercover luring officer. This has become problematic as the caseload and complexity of online investigations has increased over time which has imposed increased strain on the lone investigator,” the Peel Police report explains. “The introduction of a second designated online undercover investigator will both expand the Unit’s investigative capacity while simultaneously reducing the workload of the primary undercover investigator.” 

The unit is also looking to add another digital forensic officer who can help support the investigators in analyzing the seized devices and the disturbing material they often contain. 

It's unclear if this officer will be added in 2025 as part of the highly controversial budget increase received by Peel Police, or if it will be recommended as part of the 2026 budget. 

Email: [email protected]

At a time when vital public information is needed by everyone, The Pointer has taken down our paywall on all stories to ensure every resident of Brampton, Mississauga and Niagara has access to the facts. For those who are able, we encourage you to consider a subscription. This will help us report on important public interest issues the community needs to know about now more than ever. You can register for a 30-day free trial HERE. Thereafter, The Pointer will charge $10 a month and you can cancel any time right on the website. Thank you