DERBYSHIRE people who look at child porn on the internet have been warned by police: "We're certain to track you down and prosecute you".
The warning has come from a senior officer in the force and also from Alan Charles, Derbyshire's police and crime commissioner.
Early in 2013, the force established a dedicated team of officers to use the latest technology and techniques to target those involved in indecent images of children online and associated offending.
Since then, a total of 68 individuals have been prosecuted for indecent images offences, with more than 40 investigations still ongoing.
It comes as the National Crime Agency released statistics for Operation Notarise – a nationwide campaign that has been running for the past six months.
Derbyshire Constabulary said it had been conducting these investigations for some time before Operation Notarise was launched.
Mr Charles said: "Web-based offences represent one of the biggest challenges in modern-day policing and tackling the problem requires people equipped with a wealth of technical expertise – not a highly visible uniform.
"This illustrates the increasing complexity of allocating scarce resources to meet demand, particularly when some of those resources are practically invisible to the public.
"Together we need to send a clear message to perpetrators that they will be caught and they will be brought to justice.
"The public can help us by reporting suspicious behaviour and making it clear that abuse of any kind is absolutely unacceptable."
Nationally, Operation Notarise targeted people accessing indecent images of children online. It resulted in 660 people being arrested for offences ranging from possession of those images to serious sexual assault.
During the six-month national operation, Derbyshire Constabulary arrested nine people on suspicion of accessing indecent images of children. The operation built upon the work that Derbyshire police's team of dedicated officers has been carrying out since last year.
Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Meadows, who leads the force's child sexual exploitation unit, said: "Since it launched, we have been fully engaged with Operation Notarise, which has been led by the National Crime Agency.
"We recognise that for every image that is sold, shared or distributed on the internet, a child somewhere in the world has been subjected to abuse.
"We tackle this daily and along with local, national and international partners work to identify victims and bring to justice those involved.
"People with such images on their computers perceive it as a secret crime for which they will not be caught, and they seem to ignore the sickening offending that has to take place to support their perverted and criminal interest.
"Such people need to be aware that we use a variety of overt and covert methods to identify who these people are, and we will prosecute."
