BCA: Nearly 1,000 percent increase in child sexual abuse, exploitation tips since 2016

NINA MOINI: Now the work of undercover agents who pose as criminals or victims to catch people preying on another for personal gain has come into the spotlight following the arrest of former Senator Justin Eichorn. Now, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, was not involved in the arrest of Eichorn, but worked with Bloomington PD and other law enforcement agencies on the operation.

Now the BCA investigates these types of crimes statewide. We wanted to get a closer look at how all of this works. Their Predatory Crimes Department includes the Minnesota Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force and the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. So here to share more with us about this ongoing work is BCA Superintendent Drew Evans. Thank you so much for being with us.

DREW EVANS: Thank you for having me, Nina.

NINA MOINI: And again, BCA not involved in the arrest here, but we wanted to talk about this because this is an ongoing issue year-round I know you're very passionate about and your agency is very passionate about. You have these different focus areas on people who are targeting minors online, as well as child trafficking. Could you briefly just explain the difference there for people who may not understand the different terms?

DREW EVANS: Yeah, I'd be happy to. So as you noted, we are absolutely passionate about this. Protecting our most precious resource in our children is something that we all should be doing every single day. And unfortunately, there's predators out there who wish to exploit our kids online, either through a number of different things. Exploiting them with child sexual abuse material or sextortion, and then also human trafficking.

When we refer to child sexual abuse material, these are individuals who are either creating, through the sexual abuse of children, material to share online, or they're consuming that, downloading that. The reason that's such a terrible crime is each time that that image is shared, that child is abused. And so it's very important to work back to make sure we identify those individuals and hold them accountable.

When we talk about trafficking, we're talking about children that are being purchased to commit sexual violence against-- by an individual. And so the trafficking is different in that respect, that there's actual interaction that we're trying to disrupt, and then identify those that are being victimized and rescue them from those situations.

NINA MOINI: Thank you for explaining that. In the past when I've talked to different agents, whether they be with BCA or the FBI, they talk a lot about how the people who are training for this, the different agents, have a lot to keep up with on social media as it pertains to code language people might be using. What does this emoji mean? It just feels like there would be a lot of ongoing training. What is the training like for people who are trying to find these abusers?

DREW EVANS: Yeah, so the training itself is done through the ICAC Task Force, which is the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces that exist in all of our states across the United States. And then there's a program that's funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention that teaches our undercover agents to chat. Then, as they learn how to do that online, identifying these people who wish to exploit our children, as you know, they continually evolve, and there's a lot to keep up with.

The reason they need to do that is the people that are engaged in this, trying to identify them, they know that we will be there watching, and so they continually evolve the way that they communicate. And so it's important for us to keep up with that and to make sure that we're able to identify them, and then arrest them and hold them accountable for their actions when we're involved doing an undercover chat operation.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And earlier we heard this long list of different agencies that do all work together. Can you tell us a little bit about why so many agencies have an involvement and how you're able to better coordinate this way?

DREW EVANS: Well, there's so many involved in this because unfortunately, this is a continually growing problem. We've had nearly a 1,000% increase in the number of tips we've had in child sexual abuse material and child exploitation since 2016.

NINA MOINI: Wow.

DREW EVANS: The number of human trafficking tips that we've received since 2018 has gone up 111%. And so it's required that all of us work together from our state, local, and federal partners because these crimes occur everywhere. That's part of the reason you see so many people involved, from the FBI to the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations to the BCA, agencies like Bloomington Richfield that were named in the press conference today. We have to work together because we all have a piece of this to make sure that we're all trying to identify those people that wish to exploit our children.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And when you are targeting multiple people at a time and you're coordinating throughout these different agencies, are these types of crimes hard to get charged, I suppose?

DREW EVANS: Well, it's important that we work together, and often, one of the ways to ensure that people are charged in these cases is we have prosecutors often working right alongside with us so that they're observing the chats as they're occurring to determine when there's enough evidence to move forward and make an arrest and charge an individual. But at the same time, people do try to thwart this through their actions. And so we know what they're going to do and what's going to be attempted in that process, and so we work together with it.

In terms of when we're working on a rescue operation, and we rescue a victim that's been trafficked, sometimes the cases can be harder to move forward simply because we have a lot of work to do to build that trust with that traffic victim. You have to remember, they've been exploited by the trafficker, and they're very scared for their own safety, and a variety of different barriers that exist for them to be able to move forward to get the help that they need to get removed from that situation, but then also to move the case moving forward. But we work those tasks different ways as well once we identify who the trafficker might be.

NINA MOINI: And before I let you go, Superintendent Evans, one of the things that comes up when I cover these stories-- I think you and I have talked about it, too, is just people-- wanting people to understand that anybody's child can fall victim to something like this. It doesn't matter where you live or where you come from or how much you have in terms of resources. What can parents or just adults who care for children and teenagers in their lives, what do you recommend they do to talk to them or approach the subject of monitoring what they are doing online because there just are so many ways to be targeted?

DREW EVANS: Yeah, there really are. And the first thing is to do is to continue to develop that relationship with your child and have those tough conversations. And to be clear that if something happens, they don't have to come to you necessarily as a parent, but they can approach a trusted adult and that they're not alone. Part of what is difficult with this is children on social media become trusting, or they think they know somebody, and then they're exploited in a way, and these people are designed to be able to exploit that trust that the kids have. And so a sense of shame and guilt for what happened to them is a barrier for them to report what happened to get them the help that they need.

We need to know, for kids and for parents, that social media can be a great way to be connected socially into your community and to your loved ones, but it's also a platform for people who wish to exploit you, and to be having regular conversations. And if you don't know somebody and you don't physically know them, like in person, you need to be very careful about the communication that you have with them. And remember, sometimes people take over other people's identities, too, and it may not be the same person you think it is.

NINA MOINI: Absolutely. Drew Evans, thank you so much for coming on and talking about this important issue.

DREW EVANS: Thank you for having me.

NINA MOINI: That was drew Evans, the Superintendent of the Minnesota BCA.