As technology evolves, more people have access to the internet, and children are potentially at a greater risk than ever of being exploited online.
Dave Alley, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations - Detroit (HSI), and he's working to take down those who are child predators.
Alley is a father of four from St. Clair. He says in 2014, the National Center for Missing Children sent about 1 million leads regarding child sexual abuse. By 2023, that number jumped to approximately 35.9 million.
"The greatest thing I do every day is being a father. I love my job. I love what I do, but being a father is the most important thing to me," Alley told me.
"Has that been the motivation for your current job?" I asked.
"Very much. All kids deserve to grow up happy and healthy with a positive childhood," he said.
Alley joined HSI 17 years ago. For the last 10 years, he has been investigating crimes against children.
"In these 10 years, what has changed?" I asked.
"We are seeing more and more tips coming in, cases coming in. We are inundated with victims, with offenders. There is just so much more access to both the internet and two materials," he said.
The State Department defines child exploitation as victims under the age of 18 used in a sexual act, including pornography, sex trafficking, and sextortion, among others. Alley examines evidence from these heinous crimes as part of his investigation to get to the perpetrators.
"Every time you see it, it's horrific to a degree. But the first time is absolutely a shock. We have a number of programs to help take care of agents who have to work these kinds of cases," he said.
Last year, HSI alone investigated nationally close to 7,000 child exploitation cases, which led to the arrest of nearly 5,000 suspects, of which 121 cases came from Michigan with 64 of those from the metro Detroit area.
"What is the commonality behind these predators?" I asked.
"We see professionals, we see people who are living in mom‘s basement. We see it all across every age, race, and socioeconomic status; the commonality that I would say is a sexual interest in children," he said.
Throughout his career, Alley has arrested over a hundred predators.
"Every time I make an arrest, every time a lead that I sent out results in an arrest, I write the name of my offender on a poker chip and put it in this jar," he said.
There is a color system. Green offenders are from difficult cases, and blue chips are if he has arrested you twice, and the two red chips are for two of the worst offenders Alley said he's ever arrested in Michigan.
"One was a hands-on offender committing a violent act against numerous children he had access to. The other is a sextortionist who had dozens and dozens of victims across the world, threatening them with physical harm if they didn’t produce videos that he was interested in," he said.
The first red poker chip is for 60-year-old Michael Pierce from Lake Orion, who was sentenced to 90 years in federal prison. Meanwhile, 34-year-old Colin Martin from Center Line was sentenced to 40 years also in a federal prison. Both pled guilty.
"Does anything shock you now?" I asked.
"Probably every six months I see something and say, 'That it’s! The worst thing I’ll ever see.' And then six months will go by and I’ll say, 'OK well that’s it. That’s the worst thing I will ever see.' So I don’t know if there’s an upper limit. I make it a point to when I put a name in the jar right that my wife’s around, my kids are around and they can see that the quantification of the good that I’m trying to do," he said.
As the investigation continues for numerous other cases, Dave says there is only so much law enforcement can do.
"Where do you think parents are making a mistake?" I asked.
"I think by and large it's the lack of knowing what their kids are doing on their devices. And it’s not lazy parenting, it’s not bad parenting, it’s the lack of knowledge of what a particular app may do, that particular app may be safe or not," he said.
