CHARLESTON — Some legislators say Gov. Joe Manchin’s plea for additional resources for the State Police Crimes Against Children Unit would be impossible to not support.

Manchin asked legislators during last week’s State of the State address to provide the State Police with funds for six additional troopers and one civilian data analyst for the newly formed Crimes Against Children Unit, which currently has 12 members.

Delegates and senators attended a presentation made by Manchin and the State Police Tuesday afternoon in the House of Delegates Chambers. The presentation included a short video and a question-and-answer session with the leaders of the unit.

While the video the legislators watched Tuesday was not the same as the one the governor watched and mentioned in his address, the reaction was similar. The longer version of the video that the governor watched – clocking in at about seven minutes – was more graphic than the shorter version. Manchin said during the presentation the longer version contained images he thought were too graphic to be shown to such a large audience.

The images shown to lawmakers Tuesday were of children with blurred faces on beds or being touched. One image showed a small hand covered in burns. Another showed a boy, shirtless, wearing a collar.

“We can do nothing more important than to save our children,” Manchin said to legislators who sat in silence after watching the video.

Delegate Virginia Mahan, D-Summers, said after watching the video she couldn’t imagine anyone being against the troopers expanding their unit.

“If we look hard enough, we can find the funds,” said Mahan, who sits on the House Finance Committee. “For things this important, you find the funds.”

Mahan, who chairs the interim committee on children, juveniles and other issues, said the video, which ran about four minutes long, was pretty tame in comparison to the images and videos she’d seen while working with the committee.

She asked troopers if six additional officers for the unit would be enough to curb the problem.

Colonel Tim Pack, superintendent of the State Police, said adding six troopers to the Crimes Against Children Unit was all the department could handle at the moment in terms of training and manpower.

The officers potentially added to the unit would not be new entries to the force but more experienced officers. Manchin said the department would employ its best and most experienced.

Pack said working in the unit takes a special type of person. He added many of the officers working in the unit are parents and that they were seeing things on a daily basis that no parent should have to see but understood that it was work that had to be done.

“We’re in dire need of funding for support and six additional troopers,” Pack said. “We can’t hesitate. We have to move on this as soon as we can.”

Delegate Charlene Marshall, D-Monongalia, said the video was shocking but very informative. She said she was sure lawmakers would vote to help the troopers. Marshall said legislators want to prevent those types of crimes.

“Sometimes you think something is out there, but you don’t know to what extent,” Marshall said.

Delegate Kelli Sobonya, R-Cabell, had some experience in dealing with these types of issues. Sobonya and several other delegates came up with a bill that was eventually made into law that charges those who solicit children for sex using the Internet with a felony offense. She said the problem of child exploitation is definitely one that should be addressed by the state’s government.

Sobonya said she was shocked the Legislature didn’t already have funding in place for expanding the unit.

She said the state is trying to make cuts to most of its budgetary items but that this was one item that merited an increase. The delegate suggested if the Legislature didn’t provide funding, the governor could give them money from the state’s Rainy Day fund.

“I just hope we don’t leave Charleston at the end of this 60 days without giving them the money they need to protect our children,” Sobonya said. “If we leave and haven’t given them the funds they need, then we haven’t done our jobs.”

Contact writer Ashley B. Craig at ashley.cr…@dailymail.com or 304-348-4850.

SOURCE:  http://www.dailymail.com/News/201001190850?page=2&build=cache