They save children.
They hunt down those who prey upon the most vulnerable members of our community.
And they are here to stay.
Task Force Orion is now a permanent unit within the Queensland Police Service.
This unique band of elite crime fighters is recognised internationally for its ground breaking work.
Task Force Orion has saved hundreds of children around the world and in Australia and Queensland.
The Palaszczuk Government is investing $2.34m plus an ongoing commitment of $0.685m to ensure Taskforce Orion continues its vital work.
Established in 2016, the Task Force and the Queensland Police Service in partnership with national and international law enforcement agencies, have rescued 412 children worldwide.
Police Minister Mark Ryan said this was a landmark development for the Queensland Community.
“The work Task Force Orion does is incredibly challenging as it involves delving into the dark world paedophiles inhabit.
“On a daily basis the members of Task Force Orion are confronted by the most disturbing images.
“But they do this difficult work to save children and to hunt down those who prey upon the vulnerable,” the Minister said.
The Task Force has a distinctly international flavour.
In early 2017 the Task Force recruited two international experts who are now permanent members of the team.
Ms Adèle Desirs is a serving captain in the French national police and was previously employed, on secondment, as a Team Leader, in the Crimes against Children team, at INTERPOL, in Lyon, France.
Ms Desirs was the winner of the 2019 Queensland Women in Policing award for most outstanding female investigator.
Mr Scott Anderson is a qualified Digital Media Analyst and a former employee of the Virginia State Police in the USA where he worked as the Program Manager for the Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force case management and video/image repository.
He has performed Victim Identification Analysis as a member of the Virginia Internet Crimes against Children (ICAC) task force and also in conjunction with the USA ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾land Security Investigations Cybercrime Centre.
The ongoing funding will allow the Queensland Police Service to permanently embed the capability made available during Task Force Orion including:
o the ability to provide ongoing support and training to regional officers to maintain their capability to target peer to peer child sex offenders;
o the management and coordination of policy and program implementation of state and national strategies relating to child abuse, child exploitation, youth justice and sexual abuse; and
o the expertise to identify and locate children and risk of ongoing harm here in Queensland and elsewhere.
