August 30th, 2006
Candidate wants to expand online child predator stings
A candidate for the Republican nomination for Ohio Attorney General is championing a proposal to expand online sting operations for child predators, the Dayton Daily News reports.
Calling it the Targeting Online Predators Priority (TOP Priority, get it?), candidate Betty Montgomery, currently the state’s chief auditor, held a news conference calling for an expansion of the Xenia, OH, police department’s existing operation.
Within a few minutes of going online Tuesday, the 14-year-old girl with the screen name "cheersNohio" was chatting on the Internet with half a dozen men old enough to be an older brother or even her father, including one who asked if she had any "sexy pics." "CheersNohio" actually was Xenia police Detective Darrin Barlow.
Fellow Xenia officer Alonzo Wilson said the Xenia operation as resulted in the arrests of 85 "travelers," men who traveled for a meeting after an online chat.
Coming out against child predators has been a Republican stock in trade this year, with Republicans in Congress offering the DOPA act (Deleting Online Predators Act), which would also delete student access to virtually all interactive web services.
