MACON, Ga. — Every month, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crimes Against Children's Task Force gets hundreds of tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
"In Georgia, we receive, right now, approximately 700 cyber tips a month," says Special Agent in Charge Debbie Garner.
She says every tip gets looked at, but some get thrown away for not having enough detail, while others get moved to the top of the list.
"We prioritize ones where possibly there is someone with community significance that might have access to children -- so teachers, coaches, police officers, firemen," she says.
For those who do not have top priority, Garner says it all starts with research and, sometimes, that requires a search warrant.
"If there are five images or five videos of child pornography are in a Dropbox account, we would use legal process to obtain additional information from Dropbox," Garner says.
Garner says there seems to be a rise in these arrests statewide. In 2017, the task force made 350 arrests, and in 2018, it was down to 307, but from January to September of 2019, there have already been 379 arrests.
"It used to be that a lot of child pornography was just images, like photographs, but with the proliferation of mobile phones, there's a lot more videos," she says.
Garner says according to state law, the penalty for child pornography is one to 20 years of prison time for each charge or violation.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office took an arrest warrant for Spiegel that says they searched his home on May 1 and found over 2,000 pictures and videos on two different devices.
Spiegel was released from Bibb County jail Tuesday night after posting a $38,000 bond.
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