Child abuse reporting in Omaha spikes in April and October

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - It all happened in one afternoon. One by one they stood before a judge. Each accused of perverse sexual behavior with a minor.

“104 files consistent with child sexual assault material depicting children ranging from infants to approximately 12 years old,” a prosecutor said.

“Count five possession of child pornography, count six possession of child pornography, count seven possession of child pornography,” a prosecutor said.

“Officers executed a search warrant on the defendant’s home, seized several electronic devices. Across the devices over 1,000 child pornography files were located,” a prosecutor said.

Reporting patterns

Project Harmony CEO Gene Klein says we’re seeing more people accused of child abuse because reporting of child abuse seems to take a spike in the months of April and October.

“Our theory is that it’s typically tied back to schools in that October range. Kids are getting to know their teachers. Teachers are still the number one reporters to the child abuse hotline,” Klein said.

“And then in that April period they’re kind of winding out the year and maybe they’ve been holding that child together for the whole school year and they’re making those reports,” Klein said.

Klein tells us there are people hiding behind keyboards, luring children into bad situations. But law enforcement is on top of that. Klein says they were not surprised with the recent arrest of sex traffickers here in the metro.

“Prior to 2021 we had zero child sex trafficking arrests or convictions in the state. Since then we’ve had 25 convictions and over 60 arrests in the metro area,” Klein said.

Prevention and training

Arresting child abusers is a sign of increased public awareness. Klein says it would be better to protect the innocence of our children before people with bad intentions get to them. That starts with training. Project Harmony has a program.

“So our training program focuses on professionals responding to child abuse and neglect, those schools, first responders, that would be those teachers, day care providers, professionals that work with children and then the general public,” Klein said.

The child abuse hotline is operated by the state of Nebraska and takes about 350 calls a day.

That number in Nebraska is 1-800-652-1999. In Iowa, 1-800-362-2178, or call local law enforcement. You can get more information on training by checking Project Harmony’s website at projectharmony.com.