TULSA, Okla. — A joint effort by 16 law enforcement agencies announced it made eight arrests in just three days in the last week tied to attempted child predator crimes.
Called Operation Stolen Innocence, Homeland Security Investigations' Tulsa branch has worked with local agencies in Green Country to form the Tornado Alley Child Exploitation and Trafficking Task Force, or TACETT.
Those speaking in an August 1 press conference at Tulsa Police Department' Family Safety Center highlighted the arrests, all made in northeastern Oklahoma.
According to investigators, undercover agents chatted with hundreds, eventually pinpointing the eight based locally who will be prosecuted.
"That is a lot of child predators taken off the street in the Northern District of Oklahoma and the Tulsa area," federal prosecutor Clint Johnson said. "That's a good number of people that could have hurt real children in this community."
Federal agents made three arrests and at least four others by local police and sheriff's deputies in Tulsa, Skiatook, Mayes County, and Pryor Creek.
In most documented cases, the undercover agent posed as a 14-year-old. In one case however, 63-year-old Tulsa resident Scott Berkshire is accused of targeting a would-be victim just eight years old.
"No innocent child was put in danger in this operation," TPD Chief Dennis Larsen said. "And that's one of the key things that we'll never do. If we have a parent come forward and tell us that, 'Hey, I stumbled into my child who was in a game chat room,' we will immediately try to assume that role of that child."
Chief Larsen said while the feat is impressive, the work goes back years, especially with SPDR "Spider Unit". His department wants to set a nationwide example. "And we are accelerating with the introduction of more and better technology that allows us to identify these people quicker," the chief added.
The biggest lesson, the multiple agencies present said, is the one for parents.
“To speak to their children about the dangers and take time to listen to your children so that you know as a parent or caregiver who they are talking to," Johnson said. "Build that trust.”
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