<p>She quickly gets the attention of others in the Internet chat room after announcing she's 14 years old and looking for someone to talk to.</p><p>Soon, a man who says he lives in Australia responds and the conversation quickly turns sexual as he graphically describes his fantasies, requests a photo of the girl, and says he plans to travel to Georgia and wants to meet her.</p><p>It's the type of encounter that authorities fear often ends in the sexual assault of a child _ but not this time. That's because the girl is actually 28-year-old Cpl. Heather Lackey of the Peachtree City Police Department, and every word of the X-rated conversation has been saved as criminal evidence.</p><p>Lackey's small office in this suburban 60-officer police station has become one of the many front lines in the crackdown on sexual predators who prowl the Web. And officials are working to bring more local police agencies like Peachtree City into the international fight.</p><p>"Even though these are high-tech computer crimes, there are local victims all over the country which necessitate a local response," said Michelle Collins, director of the exploited children unit at the Alexandria, Va.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.</p><p>Lackey only does the Internet child-sex investigations about three or four hours a week, but in this Atlanta suburb of about 31,000, where violent crime is rare, the police department's consistency puts them ahead of many others when it comes to going after pedophiles on the Internet.</p><p>"They do that more than any other agency in the state," said Rusty Grant, project director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.</p><p>In Lackey's office, a "Wall of Shame" shows the mug shots of the 15 men they've arrested over the last year-and-a-half _ most are clean-shaven who look more at home at a company picnic than in a police lineup. Most are well-educated. Some are married _ and with children. Some have high-tech jobs.</p><p>"That's the scary thing about it," Peachtree City Police Chief James Murray said. "That they are regular people."</p><p>A school superintendent from nearby Pike County is among them. He was sentenced to at least 90 days in jail after pleading guilty. A youth minister and school bus driver from Henry County, south of Atlanta, is the only case to go to trial so far. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.</p><p>Some of the wall's photos have the word "pled" written on them, meaning the pictured pleaded guilty.</p><p>"Our intent was to make (sexual predators) so afraid to come to Peachtree City and Fayette County that as soon as they see Peachtree City, they'll want to go somewhere else," Murray said.</p><p>Lackey has received training from the GBI, and Grant said he hopes to get more agencies to conduct Internet stings.</p><p>Lackey has other duties, but her part-time work on the Internet stings has already led to what Murray calls "big catches" that have brought national media attention to the department.</p><p>Collins praised the GBI as a "model agency" in its efforts to recruit local police to help catch Internet pedophiles.</p><p>"That agency has done tremendous amounts of training for law enforcement in the state," Collins said.</p><p>One of the nation's leading local agencies in Internet sex stings is the San Jose, Calif., Police Department, which has made about 50 undercover arrests since 2003. The agency also hosts a training conference each year for other officers, where they discuss legal issues, case studies and new technology.</p><p>"There's a lot of little tricks of the trade that we pass on to law enforcement," Sims said.</p><p>However, some are skeptical of the stings.</p><p>"It seems to be becoming a more popular police pastime," said Jack King, staff attorney for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.</p><p>Such investigations could lead to charges being brought against people who were not actually planning to do anything illegal, King said. "There's a danger that you're going to catch a lot of innocent people just role playing," he said.</p><p>Peachtree City resident Cathy Nelmes says most of her neighbors support the stings, but she's heard complaints that the work draws sexual predators to the city who otherwise might not have come.</p><p>Murray dismisses concerns about entrapment, saying it's a crime to even have a sexual conversation with someone who is believed to be underage. He also points out that only one person they've arrested so far has gone to trial. Once transcripts of the online conversations are presented in court, suspects usually plead guilty.</p><p>Some of the convicts have been sentenced to spend time in a diversion center where they are monitored but still allowed to work at their jobs. For others, the sentence includes giving up their professional licenses. They are also put on the state's list of sex offenders.</p><p>While Lackey, who has a young son, finds her work rewarding, she says reading sexually explicit conversations for hours is troubling.</p><p>"There's many times where I have to walk away from it because after a while, it takes its toll on you," she said.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1ce01c8)</p><p>HASH(0x1ce0270)</p><p>HASH(0x1ce0354)</p>
