DCSO adds new digital forensics detective to tackle internet crimes against children

(Update: Adding video, comments from new DCSO detective)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Internet crimes against kids have become such a problem, the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office has added a dedicated detective to investigate the cases. 

Detective Mitchell Meyer once worked with the New York City Police Department, and since 1999 has been with Oregon State Police, where he most recently served as a digital forensic detective.

Meyer has been on the job a little more than a week with the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office .

He's started triaging and prioritizing cases involving internet crimes against children.

"I think it's a huge issue, and I think every department in the state is getting inundated with referrals regarding these crimes," Meyer said Wednesday.

"It's a new position, I'm learning the policies, rules and procedures of the sheriff's department," he said. "But once that's finished we're going to focus on these ICAC investigations."

The sheriff's office has seen the number of these crimes increase significantly in recent years. 

Digital Forensics Sergeant Thomas Lilienthal said, " In 2016, we received four tips total for the entire year. 2017, we received five. In 2018, we got 29,  and 2019, 2020 we received 30 tips each. And then in 2021, we received a total of 57 tips. So almost double over a year. I don't have the statistics for 2022, but I would venture to believe it's going to be around if not higher than we received in 2021." 

The most common scenario is a young child interacting with someone they believe to be their age, and they're asked to send explicit images. In reality, it's an adult on the other side of the screen, who will then threaten to expose the photos to the child's family and friends for money. 

Other tips and cases come from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

Lilienthal said, "Somebody is getting access to child sex abuse material. They're storing it online. That can be images, it can be videos. And they're storing it on some sort of service provider -- storage cloud storage, be it Google, Verizon, DropBox etc. So that tip will come to us, to try and figure out who is actually uploading or saving this child sex abuse material."

Meyer says he doesn't believe there is a set age for when it's safe for when children can go online. He believes it comes down to maturity.  

"Kids are more in tune with technology than the parents are, so they aren't keeping up with" it, he said. "If parents don't know about the technology, they aren't looking at their children's activities online."

He said the sheriff's office plans to go into schools, to educate children and families about online safety.