AlonzoMourning23
11-05-2006, 04:24 PM
One minute he's a teenaged girl, the next a middle-aged pedophile. For Det. Const. Paul Krawczyk, it is all part of the job.
"I'm a 13-year-old girl. Quick. Where do I shop?" the undercover officer shouts at his colleagues, who, like him, are chatting online, searching for pedophiles and child pornographers.
In his latest case, the 35-year-old officer with the Toronto police child-exploitation section was sitting alone at his desk at police headquarters on Sunday when he made his latest bust. It is the most disturbing case he has worked on.
In real time, before his eyes, a man sexually assaulted a little girl.
"We see these images and unfortunately we see a lot of them, many times a day even," he told a news conference yesterday announcing the arrest of a 34-year-old St. Thomas man who police believe is responsible for the horrific assault.
"But to see this child and look in that child's eyes and realize that that child was alive somewhere and we had the possibility to save the child right then, it's difficult to describe."
In an interview with the Toronto Star, Krawczyk said he saw one thing in that little girl's eyes.
"Helplessness," he said, his right hand grabbing his forehead.
"It came without warning," he said.
Krawczyk had been chatting periodically with the man since January and was suspicious of him. But it wasn't until Sunday that the man started to send images and then assault the girl, he said.
"We had no reason or ability to arrest this person before that."
Within two hours, police in St. Thomas arrested a man at his home and charged him with a slew of sex crimes.
As in every case he has investigated with the unit, Krawczyk will likely never meet the victim.
"It is different than other police work," he said. "Often I wonder how they are doing, what they are doing, if they are getting help. This case will haunt me forever."
The work done by Krawczyk and the 13 others who make up the child-exploitation section of the sex crimes unit is important.
"I love what I do, we all do. It is a passion. Sure it is the Internet and sure it's high-tech, but it goes right back to basic policing," he said. "It's the cat and the mouse. These people are trying to hide and we're trying to find them. That's exciting, too. My goal is to rescue children."
At times the work is frustrating, Krawczyk said, adding there are several cases in which the officers have seen victims grow up over several years and continue to endure abuse, but police are unable to find them.
How does an officer do this kind of work?
With the Internet, pedophiles have a somewhat anonymous outlet and an audience. Someone has to chase after them. The reward comes in removing a child from an abusive situation, Krawczyk said.
His days full of images of child pornography and chats with pedophiles are erased — if only temporarily — when he returns home to his own young children, who squeal "Daddy" with excitement when he walks through the door.
It is their hugs and kisses, he said, and spending time as a family with his wife and children that relieve the stress of the job.
"I look at my own young children and can't fathom how anyone could do anything like this to a child," he said.
Krawczyk spends about half his week online searching for child pornography and those who produce it, chatting with hundreds of these people each year.
As a young child growing up in Montreal, Krawczyk said, he was always fascinated with policing, but it wasn't his first career. He studied at McMaster University in Hamilton, earning a bachelor's degree in commerce, and entered the business world, working in sales.
When Toronto police began hiring in large numbers in the mid-1990s, Krawczyk applied. He joined the service in 1996 and has spent the last 4 1/2 years with the child-exploitation section.
"We are all constantly in contact with people online. Some investigations happen in five minutes and some take five months," he explained.
The unit's investigations span the globe and require teamwork by police here and abroad, depending on where a crime is committed. Krawczyk said although he is the one who discovered the case in St. Thomas, it is the work of the team, as well as police in that southwestern Ontario city, that made the arrest happen.
The accused, whose name is not being released to protect the identity of the young girl, is charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference, one count of invitation to sexual touching, three counts of making child pornography, two counts of making child pornography available, two counts of possessing child pornography for the purpose of distribution and one count of possessing child pornography.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1162507817118&call_pageid=968332188492
"I'm a 13-year-old girl. Quick. Where do I shop?" the undercover officer shouts at his colleagues, who, like him, are chatting online, searching for pedophiles and child pornographers.
In his latest case, the 35-year-old officer with the Toronto police child-exploitation section was sitting alone at his desk at police headquarters on Sunday when he made his latest bust. It is the most disturbing case he has worked on.
In real time, before his eyes, a man sexually assaulted a little girl.
"We see these images and unfortunately we see a lot of them, many times a day even," he told a news conference yesterday announcing the arrest of a 34-year-old St. Thomas man who police believe is responsible for the horrific assault.
"But to see this child and look in that child's eyes and realize that that child was alive somewhere and we had the possibility to save the child right then, it's difficult to describe."
In an interview with the Toronto Star, Krawczyk said he saw one thing in that little girl's eyes.
"Helplessness," he said, his right hand grabbing his forehead.
"It came without warning," he said.
Krawczyk had been chatting periodically with the man since January and was suspicious of him. But it wasn't until Sunday that the man started to send images and then assault the girl, he said.
"We had no reason or ability to arrest this person before that."
Within two hours, police in St. Thomas arrested a man at his home and charged him with a slew of sex crimes.
As in every case he has investigated with the unit, Krawczyk will likely never meet the victim.
"It is different than other police work," he said. "Often I wonder how they are doing, what they are doing, if they are getting help. This case will haunt me forever."
The work done by Krawczyk and the 13 others who make up the child-exploitation section of the sex crimes unit is important.
"I love what I do, we all do. It is a passion. Sure it is the Internet and sure it's high-tech, but it goes right back to basic policing," he said. "It's the cat and the mouse. These people are trying to hide and we're trying to find them. That's exciting, too. My goal is to rescue children."
At times the work is frustrating, Krawczyk said, adding there are several cases in which the officers have seen victims grow up over several years and continue to endure abuse, but police are unable to find them.
How does an officer do this kind of work?
With the Internet, pedophiles have a somewhat anonymous outlet and an audience. Someone has to chase after them. The reward comes in removing a child from an abusive situation, Krawczyk said.
His days full of images of child pornography and chats with pedophiles are erased — if only temporarily — when he returns home to his own young children, who squeal "Daddy" with excitement when he walks through the door.
It is their hugs and kisses, he said, and spending time as a family with his wife and children that relieve the stress of the job.
"I look at my own young children and can't fathom how anyone could do anything like this to a child," he said.
Krawczyk spends about half his week online searching for child pornography and those who produce it, chatting with hundreds of these people each year.
As a young child growing up in Montreal, Krawczyk said, he was always fascinated with policing, but it wasn't his first career. He studied at McMaster University in Hamilton, earning a bachelor's degree in commerce, and entered the business world, working in sales.
When Toronto police began hiring in large numbers in the mid-1990s, Krawczyk applied. He joined the service in 1996 and has spent the last 4 1/2 years with the child-exploitation section.
"We are all constantly in contact with people online. Some investigations happen in five minutes and some take five months," he explained.
The unit's investigations span the globe and require teamwork by police here and abroad, depending on where a crime is committed. Krawczyk said although he is the one who discovered the case in St. Thomas, it is the work of the team, as well as police in that southwestern Ontario city, that made the arrest happen.
The accused, whose name is not being released to protect the identity of the young girl, is charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference, one count of invitation to sexual touching, three counts of making child pornography, two counts of making child pornography available, two counts of possessing child pornography for the purpose of distribution and one count of possessing child pornography.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1162507817118&call_pageid=968332188492