The Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit-SV or Special Victims Unit is a multi-faceted entity designed to investigate and educate in the area of on-line child sexual exploitation. Our primary role in on-line child sexual exploitation is to serve as the state’s clearing house and primary investigative entity for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) CyberTip investigations and to manage the Northern New England Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force or (ICAC).
ICAC is a federal anti-crime initiative funded by the US Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Program. It is a collaboration of city, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies whose mission is to identify, arrest, and prosecute individuals who: (1) use the Internet to lure minors into illicit sexual relationships; or (2) use the Internet to produce, distribute or solicit child sexual abuse material (child pornography). This is accomplished through internally developed investigations and cooperation with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) who facilitate CyberTips to the task force. Since its inception, the number of cyber tips received each year has increased exponentially resulting in hundreds of crimes against children investigated by the Unit every year.
The MCU-Special Victims also assists law enforcement officers and prosecutors in Maine with digital forensics and cellular network analysis in the investigation and prosecution of homicides, crimes against children and other egregious crimes against persons.
The MCU-Special Victims is headquartered in Vassalboro with primary satellite units in Bangor and Gray. The Unit is comprised of three sections that work together and with federal, state, county and local agencies to accomplish its mission. The ICAC investigation team has 3 Sergeants, 2 Detective Corporals, 6 full time Detectives, 2 full-time Electronic Storage Detection K-9’s, Special Agents assigned from Homeland Security Investigations, as well as the South Portland, Bangor, Presque Isle, Lewiston, Portland, Norway, Augusta and Auburn Police Departments and the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office who serve as force multipliers for the ICAC Task Force. We also have an additional 133 affiliate investigators from 45 different federal, state, county and local agencies statewide who investigate ICAC cases in their jurisdictions. We are supported by a Criminal Intelligence Analyst and an Assistant Attorney General.
The Digital Forensics Analysis Lab has 2 Forensic Analysis Supervisors and 9 Computer Forensic Analysts. The Cellular Analysis Team has 1 Detective Corporal and 3 Detectives. The Unit has 1 Lieutenant and is closely supported by 1 part-time Office Associate.
The Units incoming CyberTips has grown exponentially over the years from 730 in 2020 to 2,617 in 2024 and is expected to exceed 3,000 in 2025. We also conducted 58 community outreach activities in 2024 with 7,209 attendees. The digital forensics lab completed 947 exams in 2024 specific to child exploitation investigations in addition to work on 20 homicides and 17 other egregious crimes against persons. The Cellular Analysis Team provided technical support for 124 different investigations statewide in 2024.
Formerly known as the Computer Crimes Unit, we found this unit title to be misleading in our mission. Most crimes now have a digital component confusing people as to which “computer crimes” we investigate. Major Crimes Unit – SV is not a “cyber-crime” unit, and the Unit does not take direct reports from the public. Fraud, stalking, harassment and other types of crimes facilitated over the internet should be reported to the law enforcement agency or Troop that covers the respective jurisdiction.