Crime & Safety
Mountain View Detective: Child Predators Prey on Weaknesses
A Mountain View police detective talks about tracking down suspected online child predators.
Following the recent arrest of a former teacher accused of soliciting an undercover Mountain View police officer, local authorities are talking about what it takes to catch such suspects.
CBS San Francisco caught up with Mountain View Detective Jessica Nanez to learn more about how agencies go about building their case against suspected child predators.
According to Nanez, who couldn't talk about this specific case since it's still ongoing, says predators look for certain keywords on social media sites like "teen," "young," and "girl." Those are the sorts of things police will try to mimic when setting up an undercover operation.
Another thing they apparently like? Photos of children with their tongues out or with their mouths open.
“Predators will see this and they’ll do whatever they can to find your child and pull them in,” Nanez told CBS.
According to the detective, sex predators then initiate a sort of "grooming process" to learn about the children, and eventually "bite" when they find a weak, or vulnerable moment. Eventually, they'll try to set up a meeting.
The Mountain View detective told CBS that the recent case involving former teacher Harlan Edelman was "textbook."
Read the full CBS San Francisco report here.
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