A father who called the police after he found out his 11-year-old daughter had been sending images of herself to a man online was told his child could be face charges of making indecent images of children
Police in Columbus, Ohio say they are investigating a report that their officers told the worried parent their daughter could be the one in the dock after he said she had been the victim of an “online predator”.
A video posted on TikTok shows the unidentified man talking to officers who came to his door in answer to his complaint of a man having manipulated his daughter into sending the pictures.
After opening the door, the man says: “She’s in bed now.”
Female officer: “It still happened, though, right?”
Man: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, the whole point, I just wanted you guys to come over and talk to her.
“I just want her to realise what this was. I mean, reality is not much I probably can do about it, is there?”
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Female officer: “I mean, she can probably get charged with child porn.”
Man: “Who, she can? “She’s 11 years old.”
Female officer: “She’s creating it, right?”
Man: “She’s 11 years old.”
Female officer: “Doesn’t matter. She’s still making porn.”
Man: “No, she’s not. She’s being manipulated by a grown (explitive) adult on the internet.”
Female officer: “Is she taking pictures, though?”
Man: “You guys have a nice evening.” He heads into the house. “Thank you for coming.”
He turns to say something else. “Are you serious? Have a nice evening.”
It’s unclear when the interaction took place, but the social media post, which had around 700,000 views by Monday afternoon, said the officers turned up six hours after the man’s call to police.
Columbus police said on Monday that the city’s Department of the Inspector General, “which investigates complaints of misconduct and/or excessive use of force by sworn personnel, has opened an inquiry into this incident”.
The department said it is investigating the video posted on social media “involving two officers responding to a call for service”.
Police said they regard all sexual misconduct allegations” with the utmost seriousness” and “incidents involving minors are handled with the highest degree of concern”.
They said detectives with the sexual assault unit were immediately notified and have since initiated an investigation.
