| Rooting out underground meth labs
As a
devastating drug spread across our state, Cooper successfully fought for
tougher penalties, better detection and increased public awareness. He pushed
through a law to keep the key ingredient to homemade methamphetamine out of
criminals’ hands.
Cooper
pushed his plan to fight methamphetamine through the legislature so that
criminals who make meth will go to jail longer and law enforcement will have
more help in finding and defusing the deadly labs. The reported number of
explosive drug labs fell by half after the new law took effect.
Now
he is leading the fight against drug traffickers who are bringing the drug in
from other states and countries.
Stopping child predators on the
computer
Child
predators are cruising for young victims on the Internet instead of just the
playgrounds. To stop them, Cooper is pushing Internet sites with child users to
require parents’ permission before their children can join.
He
established the first computer forensics lab at the SBI and has pushed
successfully for more computers and training so investigators can catch child
predators before they hurt our children.
Acting
on tips from across the state and country, special agents can pinpoint suspects
and seize their computers without the criminal knowing until law enforcement is
knocking on the door. Already children have been reunited with their families
and exploiters have been arrested for dealing in child porn.
Cooper’s
video, booklet and training efforts are educating parents, teachers and others
responsible for children on how to protect our kids from danger on the
Internet. The initiative has been so successful that other states are using the
materials.
Using
DNA to solve cases
Cooper has dramatically increased the use of DNA
evidence at the SBI’s Crime Lab, which got more hits on its DNA database in the
past year than its first 10 years. Hits mean evidence is tied to suspects,
either convicting the guilty or exonerating the innocent.
His work also cleared hundreds of untested rape kits
sitting on law enforcement department shelves around the state. That led to
arrests of serial rapists and other attackers, taking them off the streets.
<< Return to Records
 |
