SACRAMENTO—The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department announced on April 26 it’s asking state residents to pressure Gov. Gavin Newsom to retain funding for a task force that works to protect children from sexual predators and internet exploitation.
Sheriff authorities said Newsom excluded funding for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in his proposed 2022–2023 budget. Currently, there are five teams in California funded by the program, including in Sacramento.
“If [the task force] funding is not included in the governor’s budget, the task force teams will have to eliminate all dedicated personnel who are responsible for combatting child sexual exploitation and abuse,” Sgt. Juan Hildago, commander of the Sacramento Valley High-Tech Crimes Task Force, said in a statement.
According to authorities, child sexual predator offenses and human trafficking have surged over the last several years.
The Sacramento branch of the task force, which has been receiving about $400,000 annually since 2016, recently executed a search warrant on 24-year-old Demetrius Carl Davis, a resident of Sacramento County, and discovered “numerous” screen recordings of children engaged in sexual acts.
Davis is suspected of generating fake social media accounts portraying himself as a female child named “Lizzy” to communicate and befriend other children on the Internet.
“Investigators believe Davis spoke to his victims in sexually explicit language, as well as sending them videos of child pornography,” said Sgt. Rod Grassman, a Sacramento County Sheriff spokesman, in the statement.
Davis, authorities said, directed children he befriended to pose for child pornography depicting themselves engaging in sexual acts with siblings and other children.
Forensic analyses uncovered and identified over 80 child victims of Davis between the ages of 6 and 13-years-old. Authorities said they believe Davis communicated with “well over 100 children between 2020 and 2021.”
“Without funding, our ability and resources to combat these heinous crimes will be overwhelmed,” Sacramento Undersheriff Jim Barnes also said in the statement.
Gov. Newsom’s office representatives were not immediately available for comment at press time.
