“As we’ve seen in recent months, cyberbullying can have a devastating impact on our children and it should not be underestimated or ignored,” Attorney General Coakley said. “Our goal at today’s training is to provide those law enforcement officials who work in our schools with an understanding of how traditional bullying extends to cyberspace and equip them with the tools to investigate instances of cyberbullying that rise to the level of criminal misconduct.”
The first presentation by Assistant Attorney General Maura Healey, Chief of the Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division, provided an overview of the current laws, both civil and criminal, that apply to cyberbullying. Assistant Attorney General Healey also provided an overview of legislation currently pending that would require reporting of bulling incidents and would update criminal laws relative to cyberbullying. After the first presentation Attorney General Coakley addressed the participants on the challenges of combating cyberbullying. Following AG Coakley’s remarks, Dr. Elizabeth Englander, the Director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC) at Bridgewater State College, provided an overview on the subject of cyberbullying, as well as security tips for social networking sites and texting. The final presentation of the day was led by Todd Shipley, President of Vere Software. Mr. Shipley’s presentation focused on investigation techniques for law enforcement on social networking and cyber investigations.
Since taking office in January 2007, Attorney General Coakley has made prevention and prosecution of cyber crime a priority of her administration. Shortly after taking office, Attorney General Coakley established a dedicated Cyber Crime Division within the office’s Criminal Bureau to lead the Attorney General’s Cyber Crime Initiative. In late 2007, Attorney General Coakley unveiled “The Massachusetts Strategic Plan for Cyber Crime,” designed to help the Commonwealth develop a statewide capacity to prevent, investigate, and prosecute crimes with a cyber component. The plan calls for law enforcement training, enhanced information sharing, the development of common operating procedures and standards, funding for cyber crime programs, and amending current law as it pertains to cyber crime. On September 15, 2009, Attorney General Coakley announced the opening of the new state-of-the-art Computer Forensics Lab in Boston, which is part of the Cyber Crime Initiative and is designed to develop a statewide capacity to deal with cyber crime and more efficiently process digital evidence that is present in virtually every investigation. In the past three and a half years, the Attorney General’s Office has provided cyber training for over 7,500 state and local law enforcement personnel from across the Commonwealth. The plan is available from the Attorney General’s website at www.mass.gov/ago.
