Child abuse tips soar as Louisiana AG expands task force
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AG Liz Murrill at a press conference following the Jan. 1 Bourbon Street terror attack. Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Attorney General Liz Murrill has expanded a statewide partnership for the state's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Why it matters: That group, which jumped from a collaboration between eight law enforcement agencies to 64 since Murrill took office in January 2024, is now wading through an unprecedented number of tips.
- By Sept. 6, Murrill tells Axios New Orleans, ICAC tips already exceeded 2024's total, climbing well past 20,000 for the year.
- And that, Murrill says, "is wild."
Zoom in: Louisiana's child abuse tips have led to one of Murrill's biggest cases.
- In August, Murrill filed a lawsuit against Roblox, the wildly popular online gaming platform. Murrill called it "a breeding ground for sex predators."
- While pursuing an ICAC tip in Livingston Parish, Murrill says, officers entered a suspect's home while he played the game. At the time, he used an app to transform his voice into the sound of a young girl's "to groom a child."
- "We've seen it over and over again," she says.
By the numbers: As of Oct. 23, the Cyber Crime Unit made 77 arrests this year, with the ICAC Task Force arresting 380 people, says Lester Duhe, Murrill's spokesperson.
- Those actions have identified 70 child victims, the Duhe says, and 49 children were "rescued from ongoing abuse."
Between the lines: Battling child abuse, and child sex abuse in particular, is also a focus for conservatives nationally.
- Republican attorneys general in Kentucky and, more recently, Texas have also filed suit against Roblox, for instance.
The big picture: In her nearly two years behind the attorney general's desk, which she inherited from now-Gov. Jeff Landry, Murrill has not been shy about jumping into splashy cases, often with national implications.
- There are fights to defend moves made by state lawmakers, like the state's controversial law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in public classrooms, and an ongoing redistricting case that could change how the Voting Rights Act gets interpreted.
- But there are fights she picks, too.
- Murrill is pursuing action against the FDA and doctors who write prescriptions for abortion-inducing medication that gets mailed into Louisiana, and she's working to speed up the state's existing death row cases.
It's simple, really, Murrill says: "As an elected official and a Republican attorney general, I have certain priorities that I do intend to pursue, and sometimes I pursue them with litigation."
- And if that puts Louisiana on legal front lines, she says, then so be it.
- "I'm always hoping that we can lead," Murrill says. "Sometimes those cases are getting up [to the Supreme Court] not because we want them to, necessarily."
Case in point: An example, she says, is one the state argued this week over a Louisiana inmate's dreadlocks that got shaved off while he was imprisoned. The inmate, Damon Landor, says it was a violation of his religious beliefs, the AP reports.
- The case centers around whether the former inmate can sue for monetary damages. Murrill argued on Monday that, while the state acknowledges his hair shouldn't have been cut, court precedent indicates he isn't due compensation for the loss.
What we're watching: The thousands of tips the ICAC team receives drive a lot of that work, Murrill says, and the influx doesn't seem to be slowing down.
- "They're going up dramatically," she says. "That is largely a consequence of social media and the access that predators have to kids through social media apps."