Topeka ? Attorney General Paul Morrison wants to expand a unit he formed to fight Internet crime.

Morrison announced Tuesday that he will ask legislators next year to increase his office’s annual budget by $433,000 so he can add to the cyber crimes unit.

The money would allow him to hire an investigator, a public education officer, an assistant attorney general and a new crime analyst. It also would help expand NetSmartz, an Internet education program operated by the Kansas Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs.

Morrison formed the unit this summer and staffed it with an investigator and an assistant attorney general, using existing funds from the attorney general’s $18.2 million budget.

“We realize, with two people in this office covering the entire state of Kansas for Internet fraud and online solicitation, that we are literally spitting on a forest fire,” Morrison said during a news conference.

Morrison’s initiative wasn’t the first in the state aimed at fighting Internet crime. In 2003, his predecessor, Phill Kline, made Kansas part of a task force with local and federal officials to track down Internet predators.

Morrison contends his unit is an improvement because it dedicates staff members specifically to prosecuting Internet crime cases.

He said he’s worried both about sexual predators soliciting children and financial scams.

“You can have all the cyber crime task forces and units in the world, but if you can’t get those cases filed and prosecuted, you haven’t accomplished anything,” Morrison said.

The attorney general’s office already was working with NetSmartz before Morrison took office in January. He said the program has proven effective in educating parents and children about Internet predators.

Morrison said he would set aside $150,000 to allow Net

Smartz to provide four additional trainers in western and northern Kansas.

He said NetSmartz will be able to educate 70,000 Kansans a year, up from its present 30,000.

The attorney general said he wants the office to become a resource for county prosecutors and local law enforcement officers who feel overwhelmed by Internet crime.

“There’s a whole lot going on with this, but like everything in life, a lot of it requires money,” Morrison said.