HERNANDO, Miss. — Hernando Police arrested 23 men ranging from ages 23 to 59 years old a part of an undercover investigation.
Scott Worsham, Hernando Police Chief, was very candid about the arrest. He said he has been in law enforcement for nearly 25 years, and what he has seen during this operation has been disturbing. He reiterated it is very important for parents to be involved in their child’s social media.
“Being here in a small-town atmosphere this case has been extremely troubling,” Worsham said.
Worsham said all of the people who were arrested thought they were communicating with a child. He said the men with the mugshots are accused of communicating to have some kind of sexual encounter with who they believed to be an underage boy or girl using social media. He said people traveled far distances with those intentions.
“All areas of the metropolitan area some of these people came from hours away with the sole intent, Worsham said. “Although we’ve arrested 23, I would say there are probably hundreds more that we’ve had communication with.”
Worsham also said this investigation took a toll on everyone involved because many of them are parents.
Beryl Wight with the Memphis Child Advocacy Center says COVID-19 has caused her organization to be concerned for children too.
“Because more kids are at home and because parents have probably more childcare challenges than they ever have before there are more kids online,” Wight said. “And so, this is, unfortunately, this allows predators to have more access to kids through social media, online gaming, things like that.”
Worsham and Wight said parents must be vigilant in monitoring their children’s social media.
“Find out if (they’re in) chat rooms, find out if there are ways for people to identify a child’s location,” Wight said.
Worsham echoed that and said they are going to continue their operation. Additionally, he said they are going to continue to work as hard as they can because the children are our future, and we gotta protect them.
