Canadian County Sheriff’s Office featured in ‘Undercover Underage’ television series
Canadian County Sheriff Chris West
By Jacob Sturm
news@mustangpaper.com
Canadian County’s Sheriff’s Office is basking in the spotlight as part of Undercover Underage
Season 2 airing on ID Network.
Maj. Adam Flowers of the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office said the collaboration with the
group filming the television series started when a predator with a history with Canadian County reached out to the Safe from Online Sex Abuse (SOSA) group unknowingly. Flowers said SOSA gave a call to the CCSO for the next steps and featured the Sheriff’s Office in an episode of Season 1 of the show.
When Season 2 was approaching, SOSA reached out to Canadian County Sheriff Christ West and told him of their desire to feature the CCSO and work with the county’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force for the season.
Flowers said the television show started filming on June 1, 2022.
“Sheriff West was always big about education and protecting kids,” Flowers said. “We’ve been
very successful in the Internet Crimes Against Children unit here in Canadian County. We’ve
been doing these cases since 2011. With SOSA coming in, they would be able to provide
resources. They were able to do the decoy work, while we were able to do the investigative
work. So, having a two-pronged attack (allowed for) a more efficient project.”
Flowers said they were able to catch 23 predators since SOSA started filming in the county.
“I think the parents out there, and people watching this show, (will learn from it) in seeing just how technologically savvy that some of these predators are in how they work, in how they
groom kids and what kind of danger kids are in if they don’t have restrictions or parents that
check up on them,” Flowers said.
Flowers said the predators caught were mainly nabbed off of popular social media sites where
kids may have access to every day.
He said CCSO has a computer forensic unit, a mobile forensic unit and three investigators who work full-time with Internet Crimes Against Children cases. Flowers said Sheriff West has dedicated funds to keep it growing due to the rapid growth of the county.
“I think it’s important that the citizens know that Sheriff West is dedicated and every year we
grow the Internet Crimes Against Children task force,” Flowers said. “We add forensic
equipment. We send people to training… We’re constantly doing search warrants. Sheriff West assists us and does search warrants with us. He goes out and does arrests with us.”
For those working closely with those cases, the county sheriff’s office brings in mental health
experts, professionals and more to help give these workers opportunities to get things off of
their chest.
There is also a peer support group that helps make sure those investigators are ok following
crimes.
“I just encourage people to watch the show,” Flowers said. “It’s a great learning platform for
families to see what predators use and the tactics predators use and how they work. I know it’s going to be tough to watch… and it’s going to be uncomfortable at times, but this is real life and kids are being targeted. So, I really encourage the parents to sit down with their families and watch it and be thankful that they’re in a county that takes it so seriously that we have full-time resources combating this.”
