A sheriff’s department in northern Utah is requiring deputies to begin documenting pornography found at crime scenes and during arrests.
Lt. Matt Bilodeau, spokesman for the Cache County Sheriff’s Department, said that although no connection between legal porn viewing and criminal behavior has ever been proven, police have seen a steady increase in porn associated with crimes.
He likened the new tracking system to the approach police use with gang members.
“(Gangs) have certain clothes they wear, markings on their houses, tattoos,” Bilodeau said. “Like gangs, people who use pornography have associated traits, and we’ll define them so we can link them to crimes and pornography.”
Dani Eyer, head of American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, compared the program to scouring a suspect’s bookshelf and trying to create a criminal profile from the things that person reads.
“It’s one thing to collect evidence to crimes, but it’s another thing to link thought and association to crime,” she said.