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(This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/csosamed/public_html/podcast/transcripts/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121Sexual Exploitation of Children \u2013 \u201cDC Public Safety\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Welcome to DC Public Safety \u2013 radio and television shows on crime, criminal offenders and the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n See\u00a0http:\/\/media.csosa.gov<\/a> for our radio shows, blog and transcripts.<\/p>\n Television Program available at\u00a0http:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/video\/2011\/07\/sexual-exploitation-of-children-dc-public-safety\/<\/p>\n We welcome your comments or suggestions at\u00a0leonard.sipes@csosa.gov<\/a> or at Twitter at\u00a0http:\/\/twitter.com\/lensipes<\/a>.<\/p>\n [Video Begins]<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Hi, everybody. \u00a0Welcome to D.C. Public Safety. \u00a0I’m your host, Leonard Sipes. \u00a0Today’s show is about sexual exploitation of children, and you know what? \u00a0It’s really about a rescue mission. \u00a0The FBI estimates that on any given day there’s a million pedophiles online looking for your children. \u00a0The attorney general, Eric Holder, what he did was to frame a national effort to look at what we can do, what we in the criminal justice system can do, and to look at what you as parents can do. \u00a0To discuss this on the first half of the program, we have Francey Hakes. \u00a0She is the national coordinator for child exploitation, prevention, and interdiction from the U.S. Department of Justice, and we have Dr. Michael Bourke, chief psychologist for the United States Marshal’s office, and to Francey, and to Michael, welcome to D.C. Public Safety.<\/p>\n Francey Hakes: \u00a0Thank you for having us.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0All right, did I frame all this issue? \u00a0I mean, we have a lot of people, a lot of concern, a lot of individuals involved in exploiting our children. \u00a0So can you frame it for me a little bit, Francey? \u00a0And can you give me a sense as to the national effort as announced by the attorney general, Eric Holder?<\/p>\n Francey Hakes: \u00a0Of course. \u00a0Some people have described the sexual exploitation of our children as an epidemic. \u00a0I would certainly describe the explosion of child pornography that way. \u00a0So last August, the attorney general, Eric Holder, announced our national strategy for child exploitation, prevention, and interdiction. \u00a0It’s the first ever national strategy by any government in the world, and it’s certainly our first. \u00a0It’s supposed to have three prongs: prevention, deterrence, and interdiction. \u00a0What we decided to do is bring together all of the federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, all our prevention partners, all our sex offender management partners, our court partners, and most importantly, our parents and community groups together to bring this effort under one umbrella so that we can fight child sexual exploitation on all fronts.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0The numbers that I’m talking about, they’re going up dramatically. \u00a0The numbers are astounding. \u00a0We’re talking about a huge number of individuals trying to violate our kids on a day to day basis, and when I say violate, we’re talking about psychological and physical bondage, are we not?<\/p>\n Francey Hakes: \u00a0Unfortunately, the children that are being sexually abused, especially the ones whose images are being traded like baseball cards across the internet, across the world, are being violated in increasingly violent ways, and we’re seeing increasingly younger and younger children being violated that way, and that is the reason that the attorney general and all of our partners decided to get together and start this effort, so that we could do something about it, and our ultimate goal is to eradicate child exploitation ultimately.<\/p><\/div>\n Michael Bourke: \u00a0Well, for eight years, prior to coming to the Marshal Service, I treated these men in federal prison, and the truth is there isn’t really one mind of a predator, you know, so to speak. \u00a0These men come in from all walks of life, they’re from all socioeconomic groups, they’re both genders, frankly, and these men tend not to burn out like other types of offenders do. \u00a0So really, when we talk about what is the sex offender, they, they’re folks that are our neighbors; they’re folks that are our coaches and civic leaders in our communities in some cases. \u00a0So they, most individuals that offend against children are actually known to those children and some have a very positive relationship in other ways with those children.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Well, help me frame it Michael, because on one hand, we have, according to the FBI, a million pedophiles online, and they’re trying to entice these kids into meetings, and they’re trying to entice them to exchange images. \u00a0These images are going to haunt them for the rest of their lives. \u00a0On the other hand, most sexual exploitations involved people who were known to the victim. \u00a0They’re the neighbor. \u00a0They’re the uncle. \u00a0They’re the coach. \u00a0I mean, what do you say to parents? \u00a0I mean, the numbers seem to be overwhelming. \u00a0What are the chief lessons to be learned here, and what prevention lessons can we put on the table?<\/p>\n Michael Bourke: \u00a0Yeah, I think, and Francey may have something to add to this, but from my experience, parents need to be aware of what their children are doing online. \u00a0They need to be aware of who their friends are online, with whom they’re chatting at night, they should be paying as close attention to those friends as they do if their child’s going to go spend the night at someone’s home, and frankly, a lot of parents are a little intimidated by some of this advanced technology on the internet, children have a lot of access and avenues by which to access the internet, including mobile devices, and parents need to just get a little, get some additional education, and they need to pay attention to what these kids are doing online. \u00a0It’s a very dangerous place.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0They’ve got to be aggressive. \u00a0We run, by the way, in this program, we run a commercial about parents intervening with their kids and their online experiences, but the parents need to be aggressive. \u00a0Is that the bottom line? \u00a0I mean that’s the principal prevention method, if parents are aggressive in terms of what their kids are doing, and keeping an open line of communication, so if that child is approached, he can go to the parent and tell the parent about this experience. \u00a0Am I right or wrong?<\/p>\n Michael Bourke: \u00a0Yes, I think that’s accurate. \u00a0And also that relationship is very important between the parent and child as well. \u00a0For the parent to have a relationship with the child where the child feels comfortable coming to the parent and saying, someone attempted to solicit, or asked me to send them a dirty picture.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: Right.<\/p>\n Michael Bourke: or something like that, so that the parent can take action because so much can occur despite parents best efforts…<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0\tRight.<\/p>\n Michael Bourke: these children can access the internet in a number of locations in a number of ways.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: Right.<\/p>\n Michael Bourke: \u00a0so building that relationship and that type of rapport with the child is very important.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Francey, you mentioned at the beginning of the program that The Department of Justice, for the first time, is bringing a coordination of effort in terms of parents, in terms of community organizations, in terms of law enforcement, in terms of everybody within the criminal justice system. \u00a0What is the bottom line behind that coordination, is it to be a more effective tool for prevention, a more effective tool for apprehension and prosecution? \u00a0What is it?<\/p>\n Francey Hakes: \u00a0Well, like I said, in the beginning, it’s really three prongs. \u00a0There are three main focuses of the national strategy: prevention, deterrence, and interdiction. \u00a0Interdiction is traditional law enforcement investigation and prosecution. \u00a0I’m a federal prosecutor, and I’ve been prosecuting these cases for 15 years. \u00a0That’s obviously very important and will continue to be very important. \u00a0But we’re never going to investigate and prosecute our way out of the problem. \u00a0The numbers are simply too large. \u00a0So deterrence is very important, and that’s where the United States Marshal Service and others, our state and local partners, through their sex offender management and monitoring, they are so key, and one of our best tools is going to be prevention. \u00a0We’d rather not have the victims to have to rescue in the first place. \u00a0We’d rather the children be empowered to protect themselves. \u00a0We’d rather the parents have the tools that they need to know how to protect their children, and so that’s why organizations like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Netsmarts, these organizations give out free materials, they have websites, they give out free materials for parents, teachers, students, and groups to obtain the information that they need to protect themselves online. \u00a0It’s not just the parents, it’s not just the students, it’s not just the teachers. \u00a0It’s all of those groups, plus our community groups, that need to have the materials necessary to protect themselves, not just online, but in their day to day activities, I think sometimes in this internet world, we’ve become, and Dr. Burke is correct, that children have access to the internet through so many devices now that it’s, sometimes, I think, a little terrifying. \u00a0But we also have to remember that the majority of children who are being sexually abused are being abused by those that they know, and so arming them with the knowledge, the empowerment, the understanding of what is right and what’s wrong and what’s okay to tell, who to go to, a trusted adult, those things are very important.<\/p><\/div>\n Francey Hakes: \u00a0Exactly right.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Now, so all these statistics that I mentioned at the beginning of the program, one million pedophiles, and a 914% increase in the number of child prostitution cases, \u00a0do we have the capacity to deal with this? \u00a0Is the criminal justice system at the federal, state, and local level overwhelmed by this process? \u00a0Do we have the wherewithal to deal with this effectively, or are we fighting an uphill battle?<\/p>\n Francey Hakes: \u00a0Well I think, sometimes in prosecution, we always used to call it shoveling smoke because it seems like the more you shovel, the more that there is. And I think with respect to child sexual abuse it’s been around for a long time, we hope that we can eradicate it, and where I think, we’ve started well, we’re on a good path. \u00a0Are we somewhat overwhelmed? \u00a0I think it’s overwhelming. \u00a0I don’t think we’re overwhelmed. \u00a0There are huge amounts of effort going on at the federal, state, and local level, but the key here is what the national strategy was designed to produce, and that is partnerships, collaboration, and cooperation at all levels of government, including globally. \u00a0This has become, of course, an international problem with the advent of the internet.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0A global issue, right.<\/p>\n Francey Hakes: \u00a0It is an absolutely global issue. \u00a0And so we’re working with industry on ways to solve the problem. \u00a0You probably heard the announcement last week from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Facebook and Microsoft. \u00a0Microsoft has invented a new technology called Photo DNA. \u00a0They donated it to the National Center. \u00a0The National Center, in turn, gave it to Facebook, and Facebook is going to employ this technology throughout their systems which will search for and find known images of child pornography so that they can be eradicated from their systems.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Wonderful. \u00a0Michael –<\/p>\n Francey Hakes: \u00a0So these are things that we have to do to work together and really think creatively between law enforcement, community, and industry.<\/p><\/div>\n Michael Bourke: \u00a0Yeah, it’s a great question, Leonard. \u00a0I think the answer is, it’s fairly multifaceted, but the short answer is that there is no cure for pedophilia. \u00a0There’s no cure for these fantasies and these drives, per se. \u00a0There is, however, for any of these individuals, a possibility of managing that behavior. \u00a0This is not something inevitable, this is a choice, these men are responsible for those choices, and women, and we can assist them in doing that with creative external management. \u00a0By that, I mean things like the registrations and outpatient treatment programs and things like that. \u00a0With proper external management and proper internal management, these men are capable of living a life in which they never harm a child.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Right, so treatment does work. \u00a0That’s one of the things I did want to get across. \u00a0Treatment does work, and we within the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, our sex offender agency, we’re going to talk about that with two people involved in that unit on the second half, but treatment does work, \u00a0we can really persuade individuals who are on the edge. \u00a0The commercial that will run between the first and second half, we’ll talk about \u00ecwhen did you become a child sex predator?\u00ee \u00a0Obviously, we’re under the opinion that we can persuade people who are on the edge not to do this. \u00a0This is wrong; you’re going to get locked up. \u00a0We can meaningfully intervene.<\/p>\n Michael Bourke: \u00a0Right, well there are individuals that, with those proper things in place, have a choice not to re-offend.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Okay.<\/p>\n Michael Bourke: \u00a0That’s correct.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0The final part of it is aggressive prosecution. \u00a0We need to go after them in every way shape and form and that’s what we’re trying to do with the federal, state, and local level, is to set up these dummy operations to pretend that you’re the 14 year old, the 13 year old, to monitor whatever it is that we can monitor, and to go after these people and arrest them and prosecute them. \u00a0Is that correct?<\/p>\n Francey Hakes: \u00a0Well that’s right, and that’s one of the reasons why we place such a high emphasis on technology and training for our law enforcement and for our prosecutors, because this is often a very high-tech crime, and we need a high tech solution, and that’s why we’re working with industry on things like I talked about, the Photo DNA initiative, but there are lots of other tools that law enforcement uses to keep up with the bad guys who are trying to assault our children. \u00a0There are very sophisticated groups out there that have banded together to discuss their deviant fantasies and to plan ways to sexually assault children, and we have to find ways to be just as sophisticated to break their encryption, to get into their passwords, to find a way to infiltrate these groups, and we are doing that at the national level in order to make clear to these would-be predators that they have nowhere to hide, and that’s why it’s so important for us to have very strong, firm sentences as well, because that is part of our deterrent prong.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Okay, we have one minute. \u00a0So through the national effort, for what attorney general Eric Holder announced, the Office of Justice Programs, US Marshals Office, Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, we can look them in the eye and say that we’re gaining ground, that we have the wherewithal to come after you guys. \u00a0Stop it.<\/p>\n Francey Hakes: \u00a0I think the message is, to the would-be pedophile out there is you’re probably talking to a law enforcement officer, and watch out for the knock at your door.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Cool. \u00a0Michael?<\/p>\n Michael Bourke: \u00a0I agree. \u00a0United States Marshal Service has also set up what we call the National Sex Offender Targeting Center. \u00a0It’s a multi-agency, multi-disciplinary intel and operational hub. \u00a0We’re looking in all corners for these men. \u00a0We are going after them when they fail to register, and we’re putting all of our efforts toward this problem.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0We have to close now. \u00a0I really appreciate this stimulating conversation. \u00a0Ladies and gentlemen, Francey Hakes, National Coordinator for the Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction from the US Department of Justice, Dr. Michael Bourke, Chief Psychologist for the United States Marshals Office. \u00a0Stay with us on the second half of the program as we talk to individual parole and probation agents, what we call community supervision officers, who supervise sex offenders on a day to day basis. \u00a0Please stay with us.<\/p>\n [Music Playing]<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Welcome back to D.C. Public Safety. \u00a0I continue to be your host, Leonard Sipes, and we continue to explore this topic of sexual exploitation of children. \u00a0The first half, we talked to two individuals from the Department of Justice, and we framed the numbers, and the numbers are truly staggering, but what does that mean in terms of the local level? \u00a0We talked about the importance of partnerships, and we talked about the importance of people at the local level enforcing laws and providing treatment services. \u00a0To talk about what it is that we do here within the District of Columbia; we have two principals with us today. \u00a0We have Ashley Natoli, a community supervision officer for the sex offender unit of my agency, the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, and Kevin Jones, another community supervision officer for the sex offender unit, and to Ashley and Kevin welcome to D.C. Public Safety.<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0Thank you.<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0Thank you for having us.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0All right, Ashley, give me a sense as to this issue of the sex offender unit. \u00a0What is it that we do? \u00a0What is it that we do in the District of Columbia that’s unique?<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0Well, we supervise offenders who have either been convicted of a sex offense, had an arrest for a sex offense, or an offense that is sexual in nature. \u00a0They come to our unit and are supervised in our unit. \u00a0There is roughly about 450 active cases in our unit right now, about 670 total of all sex offenders right now.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Now, the interesting thing is what we at CSOSA do, and this is different from a lot of parole and probation agencies throughout the country, is that if you’ve had a sexual conviction in the past, not your current charge, but 15 years ago, if you had a sexual conviction, or if you had an arrest, you come to the sex offender unit, right?<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0That’s correct.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0All right. \u00a0Kevin, I want to talk to you. \u00a0This is something that’s intrigued me from the very beginning of my time in corrections, that is, is that so many of the offenders on the sex offender unit are so compliant. \u00a0They dress well, they work, they show up on time, they dot their I’s, they cross their T’s, and they give every appearance of people who are compliant vs. other offenders, sometimes it’s pretty obvious that they have issues. \u00a0With the sex offender unit, the sex offenders, they can give the impression that nothing’s wrong with me, just spend your time with more troublesome people. \u00a0You don’t have to really spend that much amount of time with me, look at me, I do everything right. \u00a0Am I in the ballpark?<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0You’re in the ballpark exactly, Leonard. \u00a0These guys are the most compliant guys on our caseloads. \u00a0They actually drug test as scheduled, always on appointments, on time. \u00a0They’re in the office, they appear to be, have all their ducks in a row. \u00a0I think our main focus is, what are you after you leave our office? \u00a0So that’s why we use a lot of our safety tactics, are that, we have a lot of collateral contacts with the offenders and the offenders’ families, and we really get to see what kind of guys they are once they leave our office.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Now, I guess I shouldn’t brag, but then again, I am the host of the program, and this is our agency, so I am going to brag. \u00a0We have one of the best sex offender units in the country, in my opinion, and what I’ve heard that from a lot of people, one of the best sex offender units. \u00a0We have very high levels of contact. \u00a0We drug test the dickens out of them, we submit them, they have to submit to lie detector tests, polygraphs. \u00a0We put them in treatment, sometimes through the treatment process we find out about other things, we search their computers. \u00a0We put them under surveillance, if necessary; we work with local law enforcement in terms of joint supervisions. \u00a0We go to their home unannounced. \u00a0You guys do it, and sometimes with our partners in the Metropolitan Police Department, they’re under a lot of supervision, right?<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0That’s correct.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Okay, and what does that do for that person, either one of you?<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0That person, as we do unscheduled contacts, it kind of keeps them off balance. Again, he has to be held accountable for, if he has no contact with minors, we assure that by doing home visits, and when we’re in home visits, we’re actually looking for things that might kind of be off the beat, maybe a possible toy, things of that nature in someone’s home, and at that point, they’re questioned.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Now it’s also extraordinarily difficult, at the same time, with handheld computers, commonly known as smartphones. \u00a0I mean, the smartphone that I carry every day is as powerful as a desktop computer five years ago. \u00a0You can do anything you want with a smartphone. \u00a0So yeah, we have the right to search their computers, but they may not be operating off their computers. \u00a0They may be operating off of a portable device, correct?<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0That’s correct.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0How do you deal with that?<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0We look at the smartphones and the handheld devices similar to a computer. \u00a0We have the ability to search those just as we would a computer, and in most instances, the offenders will be having these handheld devices as opposed to having a computer,<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Right. And the other thing that we are aware of too is a lot of the gaming consoles, such as Play Station 3’s, can be manipulated into being a computer as well, so we have to be looking out for a lot more than just a laptop in the home. \u00a0We have to be looking into what they’re using as a phone, what they have, and then we’re asking the questions and following up with the searches. \u00a0And that becomes the intriguing part of this, because it truly is a cat and mouse game. \u00a0Now I don’t want to overplay my hand here. \u00a0These individuals, in many cases, are compliant. \u00a0You’re supervising them, they are in treatment, treatment does work, you can take individuals, and they can control their impulses. \u00a0They don’t necessarily have to be out there offending. \u00a0But this is truly the, Dr. Bourke mentioned it in the first half, this is the master psychological game. \u00a0It is a psychological game, is it not, of cat and mouse, of looking for nuances of listening to individual little things that may not mean that much to another community supervision officer, but to you, means a lot. \u00a0Am I right or wrong?<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0That’s correct.<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0Yeah, that’s correct.<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0A lot of these offenders, they are masters of manipulation and deception, and that’s, in most instances, in a lot of instances, how they ended up offending in the first place, because they have an incredible ability to groom these victims, and they’ve mastered the art of manipulation, and so we have to be aware of that so we aren’t taken advantage of.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Well, tell me a little bit about the grooming of the victims, because we didn’t get involved in that in the first half. \u00a0They will go online with them, and they will have, not just hours of conversations, but days or weeks or months of conversation before they ask for a photograph, or then that photograph moves on to a more sexually suggestive photograph. \u00a0This is a process. \u00a0They’re very patient individuals. \u00a0Correct?<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0That’s correct. \u00a0A lot of the guys that are in the grooming process while on sex offender treatment, a lot of that comes out in the treatment process, and once you find out that a guy might be on supervision, an offender might be on supervision for one offense, during that sex offender treatment process, you will find out that this offender has had multiple victims that he has proposed and that he has groomed, and this makes this offender a little more dangerous than what, from the outside, what it looks like to just this one victim.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0And again, I mean, the idea of going in unannounced, putting on a GPS tracking device, but all of that, we talk about the technology, and I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself with the technology, it strikes me, the most important ingredient we have here in terms of protecting the public is the savviness of the people who are supervising these sex offenders. \u00a0Do I have it right? \u00a0It really doesn’t matter about the computer part, the GPS, and the tracking devices, and the lie detector tests, what really matters is your ability to read the tea leaves as to whether or not this person is truly compliant or not. \u00a0Am I right or wrong?<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0That’s correct. \u00a0You have to be very patient and very thorough and leave no detail unturned. \u00a0Like with the GPS, we’re not just looking at, are they complying with their curfew, are they charging their device, we’re looking at, where are they going during the daytime. \u00a0So you actually look at all their tracks so you can know, did this offender go to the park, or was this offender near a school, so we’re aware of that, and we can put alerts on there so it helps us to identify that, but we have all this information, and if we’re not doing the right thing with it, then<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0And the neat thing about it is we can overlay Google Earth, so we’re taking a look at that intersection, and we’re not quite sure he’s hanging out at the intersection, but when we overlay Google Earth, a-ha, there’s a playground that didn’t show up on a regular map. \u00a0So we do have the technology tools to try and keep up with the individuals, but it’s really is more understanding who that person is. \u00a0How long does it take until you get a sense as to that sex offender? \u00a0How long does it take before you feel that you’re inside that person’s head, that person’s mind, that person’s modus operandi?<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0Well, again, with the treatment modal-, coupled with the GPS, you can probably feel your offender out, I guess, in about two months, maybe, to that nature, and a lot of it is, you’re questioning his every move, which makes him uncomfortable, which is, at the same time, holds him accountable for where he’s going, so as long as he’s knows that he’s being tracked, and that we have exclusion zones from the zoo, from parks, and things of that nature, then that kind of keeps him in compliance.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0And we’ll get word from the Metropolitan Police Department and other law enforcement partners that we saw the guy spending way too much time outside of the St. Francis School. \u00a0It was a block away, and maybe he has a legitimate reason for being there, maybe he doesn’t, but that’s also the law enforcement partnership feeding us information, right?<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0Yes.<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0Yeah, definitely.<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0And apart with the law enforcement contact, we do unscheduled accountability tours, and that’s with our partnership with Metropolitan Police Department, and at that time, we also have what we call GPS clean sweep tours, where we will come do unscheduled accountability tours on an offender who has a GPS curfew of 7:00, just to make sure that they’re in place, that there’s no type of shielding, anything of that nature, and we also are really big on the Halloween project, where, that we will come to the offender’s home between the hours of 3 and 11, and he is to be in that home at that particular time.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Right, and we have found violations on the Halloween tour. We have found kids inside the home, and we have found them, they’re not supposed to be giving out candy, they’re not supposed to be decorating homes.<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0Lights supposed to be off.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0We roll up to the house, and there’s decorations, and there’s candy, so we’re trying to protect the public in that way. \u00a0The other major thing that we’re trying to do is look at social media, look at Facebook, but there are literally hundreds of sites that kids go onto. \u00a0I was reading this morning about going onto gaming sites. \u00a0You know, it’s not a chat room, it’s not Facebook, it’s now gaming sites. \u00a0So we’re now in the process of taking a look at social media and tracking that person through the social media process, correct?<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0Yes.<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0That is correct.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Okay, and there’s a certain point where we are going to be expanding this to other offenders beyond sex offenders, but that’s part of their world, and that’s part of the experience of kids, and if they’re going to be there, we need to be there, right?<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0That’s correct.<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0Yeah, and we actually have a mechanism where we are monitoring Facebook, and we’ve had situations where we’ve seen our offenders who may have no contact with minors, and in his profile sheet, he’ll be holding<\/p><\/div>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0a child.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Right.<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0And it’s not as simple as just searching them by their name. \u00a0You’re searching their aliases; you’re looking, searching by email addresses and different things, because a lot of it is not going to just be given to us. \u00a0We have to find the information. \u00a0It’s there if we search for it, deep enough.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Right. \u00a0We’re not going to give away our secrets in terms of how we’ve figured this out, but Cool Breeze was his moniker, nickname seven years ago, and son of a gun if he’s not using Cool Breeze in terms of his Facebook interactions, so there are all sorts of ways of getting at this issue. \u00a0So the bottom line is this. \u00a0What do we tell parents? \u00a0I mean, you guys are there protecting their kids, you’re protecting all of society, just not the kids, but you’re protecting society, protecting kids from further activities on the part of these individuals. \u00a0You know them better than just about anybody else in the criminal justice system. \u00a0What do we tell parents? \u00a0One of my chief messages is having an open conversation, so if somebody approaches that child, that child talks to the parents.<\/p>\n Ashley Natoli: \u00a0I agree, and I also think parents need to be aware that this is something real and that happens every day, and that a lot of people think, oh, it won’t happen to me, or it won’t happen to my children, but you need to be aware that it is a problem and it will happen, and you need to know what’s going on so that you can educate your children appropriately and know that this is real.<\/p><\/div>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0That’s correct. \u00a0And a lot of it is, just like we were stating, collateral contacts. \u00a0You have to build a collateral contact with the offenders’ family members.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0Right, and employers and friends.<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0Employers, friends, significant others.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0The bottom line is that you’ve got to get, and we’re going to close with this question, you’ve got to get a complete psychological profile of who that person is. \u00a0You’ve got to know that person better than their own mother knows that person, correct?<\/p>\n Kevin Jones: \u00a0That’s correct.<\/p>\n Len Sipes: \u00a0All right, we’re going to close on that. \u00a0Ladies and gentlemen, Kevin Jones, community supervision officer for the sex offender unit, my agency, Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, Ashley Natoli, the community supervision officer, again, with the sex offender unit. \u00a0Thank you very much for watching, and please, protect your children. \u00a0Please have an open and honest conversation and age appropriate conversation with your children. \u00a0Watch for us next time when we explore another very important topic in our criminal justice system. \u00a0Please have yourselves a very, very pleasant day.<\/p>\n [Video Ends]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sexual Exploitation of Children \u2013 \u201cDC Public Safety\u201d Welcome to DC Public Safety \u2013 radio and television shows on crime, criminal offenders and the criminal justice system. See\u00a0http:\/\/media.csosa.gov for our radio shows, blog and transcripts. Television Program available at\u00a0http:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/video\/2011\/07\/sexual-exploitation-of-children-dc-public-safety\/ We welcome your comments or suggestions at\u00a0leonard.sipes@csosa.gov or at Twitter at\u00a0http:\/\/twitter.com\/lensipes. [Video Begins] Len Sipes: \u00a0Hi, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,47,15,16,52,31,25,19,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminaljustice","category-internet-crime","category-interviewswithpolicymakers","category-interviewswithstaff","category-parole-and-probation","category-probation","category-sexoffender","category-sexoffenderregistry","category-videopodcast","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pBoKk-aH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions\/671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}