The Special Investigations unit focuses on identifying online child sexual exploitation cases, which are then assigned to the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (SOVA-ICAC).

The ICAC task force program was created by the Department of Justice in 1998. At this time, internet access had drastically improved at households and, likewise, complaints about child sexual exploitation were increasing.

The Bedford County Sheriff’s Office was one of the first 10 agencies selected in 1998 to become an ICAC task force, covering all of Virginia and West Virginia. Through the years, new task forces were created in Northern Virginia and West Virginia.

The bulk of the cases investigated by SOCA-ICAC are the possession and distribution of child pornography. They also are the clearinghouse that receives all of the cyber tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

This unit received one of the first electronic detection K9’s in the country. Wyoming, a yellow lab, is trained to detect a certain chemical in storage media, from CDs to USB drives to laptops. Investigators take him when serving search warrants to make sure they recover all evidence.