Polk County undercover operation leads to 19 arrests in child sex sting

Polk County is the Florida of Florida.

If you’ve ever been to Polk county, these headlines barely even grab your attention anymore

I think that is just everywhere, I was watching a true crime video from a murdered girl in like the 70s and they ended up arresting like 4 guys creeping on kids and they were all unrelated to the crime, just that nobody was looking into that before

I’m sure this sadly happens in a lot of places…. Most places don’t hold a press conference about it. Grady Judd loves his limelight… they’ve even got merch now

I’m not thrilled to defend Polk county, but: I-4 runs from Tampa through Orlando, with a solid portion in Polk county. Tampa and Orlando are comparatively large cities where trafficking occurs. Orlando especially has an issue with it, due to the area’s transient nature. It makes sense that parts of Polk county would be caught up in it as a hub between two of Florida’s biggest metro areas. Polk county has a ton of issues (meth, meth, and more meth), but I really think location plays a larger role rather than it just being an awful place on its own. And I’m originally from Highlands county, just south of Polk and not much better, so I’m only partially talking from my ass.

I'd venture many, many, places are just like this but without the busts or headlines. People are sick fucks and it's more than you think.

Born and raised there, by a pedophile no less, you have no idea.

59.71% of the county voted Republican in 2024, so it cant be too shocking. 

The US as a whole has issues with child sex abuse. There is a reason that "teen" is the most popular p*** search term for adult men. 1 in 4 women will experience child sexual abuse in the United States. The US population literally elected a known pedophile and rapist as the President. This problem runs way deeper than Polk County. Hunting down and arresting predators is a good thing, but it's important to remember that most abuse happens in the family, schools, churches, sports teams, etc.

The sherrif here loves these stings because it puts him on tv. He does it more than other sherrifs

I wonder if any Israeli intelligence agents got caught in this one like the sting last year(?) in Vegas (that guy was then immediately released by the feds so he could flee the country).

Just ask Palm Beach Pete!

Could be, could also be that Polk County has a sting operation issue too though… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LqwJFuntco4&pp=ygURSm9obiBvbGl2ZXIgc3Rpbmc%3D&ra=m

Grady has a life goal I guess I don't think it's a Polm problem, polk is just doing something about it

Also Craig Long a MAGA influencer was caught in it too.

Vulnerable child victims are easy prey to abusers.

It's always the ones you suspect the most

> Among the suspects discussed during Tuesday’s news conference was Tom Hicks, 68, whom Judd described as a for-hire Santa performer known in Polk County and Central Florida. He’s really going for every stereotype

It's always \*exactly who you always suspect\* that gets busted for stuff like this.

When a position of power is available without appropriate oversight, the lack of oversight shines like a bright beacon of opportunity to criminals. Heads of religion are often seen as inherently good people selected by God, so many churchgoers under them don't think the position needs oversight, while the reality is perfectly opposite: when powerful positions do not have strong oversight, criminals are given the opportunity to exploit that power. **Power *must* come with oversight proportional to that power.** No system that allows a person or group to gain power can properly function without oversight proportional to that power. It will eventually fall to corruption.

How many drag queens did they get this time? I’m betting it’s a nice round number. One that looks like a circle.

Notice the softening of the language as “presented himself as a preacher” instead of saying he “is a preacher”. It gives the implication that he can’t have been a preacher because of this (basically the No True Scotsman fallacy). The media will always protect organized religion and the status quo.

Also a for hire Santa. Also ew.

They left on the part where he was a drag queen! /s

r/pastorarrested

Aaaand that's why I came to the comments first. I already knew, somehow

Huh, I wonder where the good apples were in that department while he was abusing kids and abusing the law to further abuse kids... You'd figure there'd be at least one. >! /s !<

I don't know how you don't instantly lose your job for something like that.

https://www.motherjones.com/criminal-justice/2024/11/taylor-cadle-polk-county-false-reporting-investigation/ For anyone like me who prefers reading, this was an in-depth account of how fucked up Polk County LE is and how badly they screwed over that young girl. That sheriff is well known here for being more obsessed with PR and his facebook page than anything of substance.

Netflix has a very good but hard to watch show on a similar case. "The Netflix miniseries Unbelievable (2019) is based on the true story of Marie Adler (played by Kaitlyn Dever), a Washington teenager who was raped at knifepoint in 2008 but coerced by police into recanting her story and falsely admitting to making it up." It ruined her life, then years later some detectives in Colorado found a serial rapist who had pictures of the Oregon girl and her ID and the Oregon Police office was in disbelief until they email the evidence, was a messed up story. She did get a payout in the end but for a long time everyone in town thought she was crying wolf over her r***.

Judd also made defamatory statements about Ryan Skipper, a gay man killed in a hate crime. He said he was a prostitute and victim blamed him, when none of it was true. There's way more too. Too much to post in a comment. Judd and his department are garbage.

John Oliver covered this as part of a whole Sting episode. Come to find out, most sting operations are bullshit and are fabricated or grossly exaggerated.

Grady Judd is a f****** piece of shit.

Uh, so they check this sherrifs hard drive right? 

Same reason my local police set up roadblocks every weekend in the shitty parts of town to catch DUI but never outside the worst offending place, the country club.

You're not gonna believe this one but... Honestly it's mostly about money. The most enforced and went after crimes are things that can pad their bottom lines. Some police stations have [Ticket Quotas](https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/outlawing-police-quotas). As in, the amount of speed tickets you are *required* to write. If nobody in your district is speeding, the cop gets penalized. Low level drug busts are common as well because the cash recovered can be sized through Civil Asset Forfeiture, and more often than not the [drugs can be resold by the police themselves](https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/former-arnold-police-chief-cocaine-selling-bust/). Catching murderers can be dangerous and catching rapists often requires "Expensive" testing and doesn't lead to an increase in profits. [Policing For Profits](https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2021/03/08/policing-for-profit/) is one of the big reasons for this. The police can mention the stats of how many drug busts they did or how many people they've arrested in routine searches to justify further funding and then use what they ceased to pad their pockets.

Chris Hanson does his show To catch a Predator with this county. I bet most of these are uploaded on YouTube.

lol already submitted it to r/NotADragQueen but its awaiting mod approval

But there was one Santa Clause!

I’d bet 100%. Trump fans.

GOP are the highest offenders

They should just drop act and rebrand themselves as the Repedocan Party.

A publication can be sued for libel if it does not use the same language as the arrest documentation.

I mean, of course. A lot of the modern right wing is verifiably, and objectively insane. Dont even give me both sides bullshit. One side walks into McDonalds with an open carry gun. Drag queens dont have to try so hard to get laid. Just sayin.

Please consider writing for The Onion, because that’s really good.

They would have to run for president first. Then they can redact all the evidence against themselves and their buddies. But I guess being known ped0 they could still run and get elected.

Dallas, or M-I

> red hats well, one of them was a Santa...

The LWT episode in question: https://youtu.be/LqwJFuntco4?si=m-QmTCNM_aO7X164 I don't have time to re-watch the whole thing at the moment, but if I recall correctly Polk County is specifically mentioned.

Sad to say, it absolutely does happen. A guy who used to work in my division is doing time in federal prison for offering that very same thing online. I don't understand it, but it's unfortunately very real.

I retired from juvenile justice and one of the MAIN crimes being committed was sexual offenses and ALSO one of the main crimes that get a slap on the wrist! I wonder why… young men are not held accountable and become men who prey on vulnerable people all their lives until caught and even after they are caught. This behavior extrapolates amongst communities and spreads but all the while it is minimized. The amount of sexual crimes and the trauma associated is mind boggling and very FEW are held accountable!

Oftentimes articles use passive language like that when the accused hasn’t been formally charged or hasn’t been convicted yet so they avoid being sued or getting flack for defamatory statements and what not. It’s lame but part of journalism

One of those arrested in this sting was a MAGA influencer and Jan. 6 rioter, Craig Long.

I was going to say that the old men pretending to be Santa everywhere they go are the creepiest

It’s Polk county so not really surprising results.

I was thinking the same thing. So many of these stings catching so many sickos.