Nearly every day, reports surface of criminals illegally gaining access to personal, financial or other sensitive information belonging to everyday citizens and financial institutions.

A new facility developed by the U.S. Secret Service in Shelby County will help law enforcement fight back against cyber crime.

The facility,

located at the Hoover Public Safety Center on Valleydale Road, will be used to train state and local police, prosecutors and judges and equip law enforcement with sophisticated skills to combat high tech criminals.

Cyber criminals use computers and the Internet to threaten banking and other critical infrastructure.

The National Computer Forensic Institute is expected to open in January, with Shelby County, the city of Hoover and state and federal governments pledging financial support.

We believe this is a tremendous positive for Shelby County and the public at large, which will benefit from this state-of-the-art facility.

Citizens will benefit from law enforcement officials equipped with the training to combat cyber crime. And Shelby County will benefit economically from hundreds of trainees attending the classes at the facility.

Criminals are making use of 21st century technology. We think it&8217;s time that law enforcement did the same. And we are pleased that Shelby County will help lead the fight.

There may be many cases where the government throws money at a problem without solving it. But we believe this is a case where the knowledge and expertise gained will be well worth the expense