Bloomfield and Davis County law enforcement officers are committed to Davis County’s children and do everything they can to keep them safe from abusers and predators.
With April proclaimed Child Abuse Prevention month, Bloomfield Policeman Brandon Johnson, Police Chief Chase Johnson, and Sheriff Zach Dunlavy spoke out on the efforts of law enforcement to protect children.
Brandon Johnson recently attended a two-day class on catching online predators. The basics of the class dealt with building undercover profiles, building cases against possible predators, and arranging meetups with suspected predators.
“We learned how to create an undercover account on multiple social media platforms,” Johnson said. “The class was good. We learned what we could and couldn’t say. We built profiles at the end of the first day, and by the second day we were corresponding with predators.”
Crimes against children are an international problem, Johnson said. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sponsors a tip line and in 2024, the tip line received 20.5 million tips on child pornography and sexual exploitation. Occurrences outside the U.S. made up 84% of the tips, which included 19 million accusations of possession, distribution, and manufacturing of pornography.
“Online enticement offenders in the U.S. number 550,000,” he said. “The problem is prevalent. One out of every 12 children is exposed to a sexual abuser or sexual exploitation online.”
Online gaming programs such as Roblox and Minecraft are being used by predators, Johnson said. Predators are luring children (13-17-year-olds) in to play the games and then begin making connections.
Online dating sites are also places where predators lurk.
Johnson said predators will send an iPhone and gift cards to a victim in exchange for photos, then use that as a threat for further extortion by demanding more photos, including photos of other children in the home.
Johnson suggests parents look into purchasing Bark Phones for Kids. With those phones, fol, and put locks in place.
Johnson also suggests parents go to the sex offender website (iowasexoffender.gov) and know who the local offenders are. Davis County has 10 who are registered. Charges of those on the list range from indecent contact to sexual abuse. The Iowa registry is updated hourly, so the list is always current.
“We have to be more proactive in searching for predators,” Johnson said. “This problem is only going to get worse.”
Davis County experiences other types of abuse against children as well. Sheriff Zach Dunlavy said physical, sexual, and emotional abuse all occur in Davis County. The latter form of abuse is the most difficult to deal with and is often associated with physical and sexual abuse, Dunlavy said.
“There are not really any charges for emotional abuse unless physical torture is involved,” Dunlavy said.
When abuse occurs in Davis County, law enforcement officers and HHS (Dept. of Health and Human Services) work together on investigations.
“I would say sexual abuse is reported to law enforcement first, while physical abuse tends to be reported to HHS first,” Dunlavy said.
“Sex offenses are the most prevalent in Davis County,” Dunlavy believes, and suggests the public report anything suspicious. “I would rather go to a call and not be needed rather than not go and it turn into something big.”
Dunlavy said “community is big” in solving abuse. He would like to hold a community training session on how to identify potential abuse for those who work with the public. “If something seems off, we want to know about it,” he said.
“We’ll keep working on trust so people feel comfortable coming to us with complaints. We do a good job of keeping complaints anonymous if that’s what the informant wants,” he added. “I don’t care who they call, just so they call someone.”
Dunlavy and Deputy Jake Davidson have both taken online predator training and agree that it is useful. “I could probably sit here and in 30 minutes have somebody (a suspect),” Dunlavy said. “I think a lot of law enforcement agencies are starting to do this.”
Chief Chase Johnson agrees online predators are a big problem and supports investigations such as those being conducted by Brandon Johnson.
Chase Johnson said law enforcement reported 11 sex offenses in Davis County in 2025 — seven in Bloomfield and four in the rural area. “So far in 2026, one case has been reported to the Bloomfield Police Department. The Sheriff’s Department has received no reports of sexual abuse.”
Johnson, too, urges the public to come forward when abuse is suspected. “People have to come forward,” he said. “They need to tell a trusted friend, pastor, teacher, counselor, anyone. The longer the time goes by, the harder it is to prosecute.”
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