Video Story
Watch VideoCanon City child predator sting caught on camera
Story By: James Jarman
Source: KOAA
New developments regarding a News First Investigation we showed you over the Summer of 2007. It deals with some of the most disturbing criminal behavior our local officers have to deal with -- sex crimes against children.
Despite all the high profile crackdowns on internet predators, men continue traveling to the Front Range to try to have sex with young kids.
News First was granted exclusive access to what's arguably one of the most prolific Internet Crimes Against Children units in our state, at the Canon City Police Department. It's one of Colorado's smallest police departments, and the officer who cruises the internet looking for predators only works that part of the job part-time. However, they still manage to capture, or assist other agencies in capturing, at least 1 suspected sex offender a month. Two of the units high profile captures that happened in Canon City and include a Texas Constable and a Quiznos executive.
We were with Canon City Police Chief Dan Shull and the Fremont County Combined Investigative Response Team, on an undercover sting to capture Lloyd Clark, 58, of Logan, Utah. Clark drove more 600 miles in one day to have sex with an 11 year old Cnon City girl. Clark was sentenced in January 2008 to 2 years to life in prison on child sex crime charges.
His case is just one of dozens for the Canon City ICAC team. They seen chat logs and computer files from suspects describing in disgusting detail sexual acts on young children. Captain Allen Cooper says it's all too much for some officers. "It's a very emotionally caustic environment," he said, "and we have had 2 officers who have started out with us, have done good work for us, but just could not stay in the long haul."
Despite the team's success and high profile cases, there seems to be no end to the predators trolling online for kids.
"It's kind of like beating your head against the wall," said Cooper, "I realize that there's not gonna be an end to it, that we're not gonna solve this problem as long as I wear a badge."
Officers say they can't stress enough the importance of keeping tabs on your kids when they're online. Colorado ICAC has safety tips everyone should know about.
