{"id":38796,"date":"2026-08-28T06:05:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=38796"},"modified":"2026-08-28T06:05:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:05:43","slug":"hamm-targets-internet-crimes-vs-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/28\/hamm-targets-internet-crimes-vs-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamm targets internet crimes vs. kids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>WZBD.COM<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Decatur Police Department has received a $1,500 grant which will send one of its officers, Corey Hamm, to a conference held by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The conference is scheduled for Orlando on Dec. 14-16 and will provide training which the ICAC says \u201cprovides tools and techniques necessary to develop an effective response to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and internet crimes against children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCorey has really leaned into this program,\u201d Police Chief Kevin Gerber told the city&#8217;s board of works and safety. \u201cHe has been getting himself heavily involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"145\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Corey-Hamm-in-unie.jpg?resize=145%2C240&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-38797\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The chief said people would be surprised at what kids \u201care being exposed to on their cell phones \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe just want everyone to know this is not okay, not even here in Decatur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gerber said the training Hamm receives will then be spread to other departments, agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis training will help us, will help the county,\u201d he noted<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ICAC was launched 28 years ago and its membership now includes 6,200 law enforcement and prosecutor agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IMPACT EVERYONE: Hamm told WZBD.com that the ICAC Task Force is comprised of federal, state, and local investigators\/prosecutors who are primarily focusing on protecting children from computer-facilitated sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cUnfortunately, these crimes impact every community and ours is no exception,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it is vital that we, as law enforcement professionals, are equipping ourselves with the knowledge and tools to respond to these crimes appropriately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI joined this task force about one year ago, and have been involved in numerous ICAC investigations, working to identify victims, provide them with appropriate resources, while holding offenders accountable,\u201d the city officer continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAdditionally, ICAC resources enable us to provide educational opportunities to the community, hopefully reducing the numbers of children who are impacted by these crimes in the future, and giving victims an opportunity to seek assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.COM The Decatur Police Department has received a $1,500 grant which will send one of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,21],"class_list":["post-38796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Corey-Hamm-in-unie.jpg?fit=145%2C240&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38798,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38796\/revisions\/38798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}