Urbana, Ill. – Chief U.S. District Judge Michael P. McCuskey today sentenced a former police officer, Matthew Aukamp, 44, to serve 25 years (300 months) in federal prison for production and possession of child pornography. Aukamp, of the 200 block of North Miller Street, Macon, Ill., was also ordered to remain under supervised release for life following his prison term. Aukamp was previously employed as an officer with the Decatur, Illinois Police Department.

Aukamp was arrested on April 7, 2010, after a grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging him with one count of producing and two counts of possessing images of child pornography. Since his arrest, Aukamp was ordered detained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

On Nov. 1, 2010, Aukamp entered pleas of guilty to the charges against him. Aukamp admitted that from Oct. 31, 2004 to Mar. 14, 2008, he coerced minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of the conduct, and that he possessed child pornography.

The charges are the result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Homeland Security Investigations, the Macon County Sheriff’s Department, and the Decatur Police Department.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.