Calgary police chair wants to create internet security centre

The chair of Calgary's police commission wants to set up an international internet security centre in Alberta to monitor online child predators, hackers and terrorists.

The idea is to bring police from around the world to a facility in Alberta where they could work with computer experts from the private sector, said Ian Wilms, who is also the president of the Canadian Association of Police Boards.

The centre, to be called CyberPol, would get its funding from a variety of police services but would be operatedindependently, Wilms said. He said that way,the system would allowfor more co-operation than if it was a government agency.

"We need a private entity so that the private sector can come in and work with the law-enforcement agencies in a new kind of model of policing, which is what we have to go forward with," he said. "The current environment is not working today."

Wilms is looking for permission from the provinceto set up the centre.

A bill that would allow him to proceed with a feasibility study on CyberPol is currently before the Alberta legislature.