FAIRFAX, Va. — With only seven detectives, the Fairfax County Police Department’s Child Exploitation Unit has already handled more than 1,000 cyber tips of online child sexual exploitation this year.
The types of tips originally submitted by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children before they reach the unit range from children pornography and child sex trafficking to unsolicited obscene material sent to a child and sexual molestation. Recent NCMEC data shows online enticement of a minor nationally jumped by 82% in 2022 compared to previous years.
“It can be difficult because we don’t look at the best stuff,” Lieutenant Chris Rekas told WUSA9. “It is a lot. We do have a tremendous workload, but the detectives are very dedicated and very passionate about their cases.”
Although information on how many of the cyber reports lead to an arrest isn’t immediately available, they come in clusters every week. Defendants range from different backgrounds and ages including the recent case of 31-year-old Craig Strasbourger of Tysons.
Police accused of Strasbourger of possessing several child pornography and animal sexual abuse materials. Detectives traced the Internet Protocol (IP) address to his home after a cyber tip from NCMEC. He allegedly tried to solicit a minor from Kentucky.
The search also found a few illegally modified rifles.
Strasbourger remains in jail without a bond and is awaiting a hearing on Friday.
“The underlying mission is that every detective in there is to protect kids,” Rekas added.
To help with investigations, the unit recently received a 2-year-old English lab named Delaware. Her main focus is to detect electronics such as phones, tablets and hard drives.
“We use her anytime we have to research an area to locate devices,” Rekas explained. “It's just another tool that we're fortunate to have that if we miss it on the human side of it, we can bring her in, and she goes to work.”
This comes as recent data reveals an alarming rise in online child sexual exploitation reports. The number of overall reports was 32 million last year, when it was 21 million three years earlier.
Police urge parents to talk to their children about suspicious activity online and review apps on their phones.
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