GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Sex predators have stepped up internet recruitment during the pandemic, with online child enticement reports nearly doubling in 2020, according to recent data.
But police agencies are battling back.
Undercover operations in which police represent themselves as children has drawn predators out of the cyber woodwork, resulting in hundreds of arrests.
They include 43-year-old Jeramy Lee Vanderkodde, who this week was sentenced to 11 to 20 years in prison for several offenses, including child sexually abusive activity.
Kent County Circuit Court Judge Christina Elmore called Vanderkodde’s online predatory behavior “very disturbing.’’
Elmore noted that Vanderkodde was on probation for essentially the same criminal conduct in December of 2017.
“I’m not sure what caused you or what’s leading you to make these decisions,’’ Elmore said. “I do hope that whatever it is that’s driving you to make these decisions, that you address them while you’re incarcerated.’’
Defense attorney Ryan Maesen called Vanderkodde’s behavior “befuddling.’’
“It is a bit befuddling that he’d be on probation and then pick up the same thing,’’ Maesen said. “Both these cases were undercover police officers.’’
The most recent case played out in December of 2020 when Vanderkodde got in contact with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl. It was actually a Kent County sheriff’s detective working undercover.
Vanderkodde “responded to a Craigslist ad and began communicating with myself,’’ the detective wrote in a probable cause affidavit. “Jeramy discussed sexual acts that he wanted to perform with the 14-year-old.’’
“He also discussed paying the undercover detective with a gaming card or T-shirt for oral sex.’’
Vanderkodde, on probation and on the state sex offender registry, travelled from his Wyoming home to an apartment complex in Alpine Township to meet with the undercover detective “who he believed to be 14 years old.’’
Vanderkodde “was taken into custody after he entered the apartment and provided another undercover detective with a gaming gift card,’’ Detective Joshua Thomas wrote in the probable cause affidavit.
Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said such undercover operations are a valuable tool in getting child sex predators off the streets, especially repeat offenders.
“Undercover operations in this type of work with computer crimes is something that the police do,’’ Becker said. “But it’s the only way to get at these types of crimes because there are so many people out there doing this behavior.’’
And it is not just here.
An April report from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children indicated that online enticement reports approached 38,000 in 2020, nearly double what was logged the previous year.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children “became aware of predators openly discussing the pandemic as an opportunity to entice unsupervised children,’’ a NCMEC vice president said in the recent report.
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