Part of being a Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputy involves working to find people looking to take advantage of children online.A detective, who only wanted to be identified by his last name Blanco, has worked with the sheriff’s office for 10 years. For the last couple of years, the undercover detective has made a living trolling the internet.”Sometimes I get in and I type all day,” Blanco said. “I have several undercover personas already set up. Sometimes, I’ll have five, six, seven different personas going and 10 different conversations going with different people.”Blanco is part of the region’s Internet Crimes Again Children unit. He routinely stalks those who are trying to stalk children. Most of the time, the chats start out as friendly banter but inevitably take a turn. Blanco, who is acting as if he was an underage child says many times the suspect will ask for a picture that’s inappropriate or sexual in nature.Sgt. Brandon Gayman, who also works in a similar role, said there are more predators out there than to count. The sheriff’s office is the lead agency for the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force. The group is made up of 30 counties and 175 law enforcement agencies.”We’ve seen with these cases that it doesn’t matter what community you come from, doesn’t matter what job your parents have or how poor or affluent you are,” Gayman said. “Anybody can be a victim to these predators.”The number of cyber tips investigated by the task force is only growing. It’s from 770 in 2013 to more than 10,000 in 2022.Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper said the crimes increased during COVID-19, attributing that more people were home and online. Two weeks ago, Cooper announced 23 arrests and warned parents of the dangers of lurking. He also mentioned how the work is never done because there is so much of it.”We can do this 24/7 and not even make a dent in it,” Cooper said. “It’s like holding your finger in a dike because there is so much out there.”The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office has a dedicated cybercrime prosecutor. Recently, the county’s Board of Supervisors approved funding to hire a second cyber crimes prosecutor because of the growing number of cases.”Unfortunately, we have a lot of work, a lot of cases and a lot more to come,” Blanco said. “Kids are the biggest victims that we have, in my opinion, and anytime you can help a child, it’s huge.”
Part of being a Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputy involves working to find people looking to take advantage of children online.
A detective, who only wanted to be identified by his last name Blanco, has worked with the sheriff’s office for 10 years. For the last couple of years, the undercover detective has made a living trolling the internet.
“Sometimes I get in and I type all day,” Blanco said. “I have several undercover personas already set up. Sometimes, I’ll have five, six, seven different personas going and 10 different conversations going with different people.”
Blanco is part of the region’s Internet Crimes Again Children unit. He routinely stalks those who are trying to stalk children.
Most of the time, the chats start out as friendly banter but inevitably take a turn. Blanco, who is acting as if he was an underage child says many times the suspect will ask for a picture that’s inappropriate or sexual in nature.
Sgt. Brandon Gayman, who also works in a similar role, said there are more predators out there than to count. The sheriff’s office is the lead agency for the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force. The group is made up of 30 counties and 175 law enforcement agencies.
“We’ve seen with these cases that it doesn’t matter what community you come from, doesn’t matter what job your parents have or how poor or affluent you are,” Gayman said. “Anybody can be a victim to these predators.”
The number of cyber tips investigated by the task force is only growing. It’s from 770 in 2013 to more than 10,000 in 2022.
Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper said the crimes increased during COVID-19, attributing that more people were home and online.
Two weeks ago, Cooper announced 23 arrests and warned parents of the dangers of lurking. He also mentioned how the work is never done because there is so much of it.
“We can do this 24/7 and not even make a dent in it,” Cooper said. “It’s like holding your finger in a dike because there is so much out there.”
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office has a dedicated cybercrime prosecutor. Recently, the county’s Board of Supervisors approved funding to hire a second cyber crimes prosecutor because of the growing number of cases.
“Unfortunately, we have a lot of work, a lot of cases and a lot more to come,” Blanco said. “Kids are the biggest victims that we have, in my opinion, and anytime you can help a child, it’s huge.”
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