Police here have appointed fifteen "cybercops" whose mission is online crime from pedophilia to credit fraud, the Associated Press says.
The specialist team will patrol Dutch Web sites in search of online crime, with suspects possibly investigated by new computer surveillance equipment or a member of the team, the AP says.
``They will go after all crime committed on the Internet and that could range from child pornography to credit card fraud, or the sale of illegal medicine and software,'' police spokesman Albert Folgerts tells the wire service.
The cybercopss will have power to tap phone lines and with a court order crack into computer systems to find incriminating evidence - the virtual equivalent of a search warrant.
Dutch police would not say, though, precisely which kind of online crime is the most prevalent or exactly how the new cybercop force plans to work. ``Our methods will be kept secret to maintain effectiveness,'' he told the AP.
A number of international child pornography rings were uncovered here this summer, thanks in part to Internet technology, the AP says, including one case involving several government workers with pornographic material found in their computers' memories. The workers were forced to resign.
