Before Carroll County residents awoke Thursday morning, one man was helping in the investigation of a child pornography suspect.
Protecting the county?s youth from sexual predators and child pornographers is, after all, Sgt. Brad Brown?s job.
Posing as a 12- to 14-year-old boy or girl, Brown enters online chat rooms daily to meet “travelers,” pedophiles who are willing to go to Carroll to solicit sexual acts from children.
“People say, ?Why do you want to lure pedophiles to our county?? but I always say that if they?re willing to come see me, that means they aren?t going to meet a child,” said Brown, a member of the computer crimes unit of the sheriff?s department.
His undercover work has led to the arrests of more than 10 cyber criminals since 2001.
But after a state grant ran out in 2002, Brown?s full-time online predator investigations have been downsized to part time with county funding. “Any crime that is out there that we could prevent is concerning,” he said.
Some predators make their illegal and dangerous intentions known after only a few hours of chatting, while others take weeks, he said.
Many people would be surprised by who most pedophiles are ? white-collar professionals with wives and children.
They often ask children to meet at motels or the suspects? places of work.
“Some will say when they see me that they knew all along that I was older and that they just wanted to meet me to warn my parents,” he said.
“Meanwhile, they have a pocket full of condoms.”
One Prince George?s County man didn?t have a car to meet the 13-year-old Westminster girl Brown was pretending to be, so Brown and other officers traveled to meet him.
That man is now serving a minimum of five years in federal prison and will be deported back to England after his sentence.
Sometimes, Brown takes on the persona of a father who is willing to sell sexual acts with his children.
One Washington man, obsessed with bestiality, was willing to drive a couple of hours to Carroll to pay to watch Brown?s “daughter” have sex with a dog, Brown said.
On Thursday, he assisted the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office in issuing a search warrant, but Brown said he could not comment on the case as the investigation is ongoing.
