12-year-veteran IMPD officer arrested for child exploitation

Source: Jennifer Aldridge / iONEDigital

INDIANAPOLIS — A 12-year-veteran IMPD sergeant has been arrested for child exploitation.

According to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, Javed Richards was arrested for 12 counts of child exploitation, all level four felonies.

Police say, Richards used a messaging app, KIK, with a username: Chasepleez to upload, download and share dozens of files including the child pornography.

Detectives found videos from 15 seconds long to two minutes of girls believed to be under the age of 12 engaging in sexual acts with adult men.

Those images and videos, were traded among users in chats.

“The chat rooms where they meet and talk about it and trade the pictures are infiltrated by law enforcement so, it’s just a very heinous crime, even more so, and it’s a member of law enforcement that’s entrusted with protecting society there and are engaged in these very things that we try to protect them from so it’s disturbing to see such a thing,” said retired FBI agent Doug Kouns.

Kouns said people trading pornography will often use VPN’s in attempt to obscure their real location and remain anonymous while trading pornography online.

“The VPN can make it appear as if you are located somewhere else, and then the next time you log on, it might bounce you to yet another place,” Kouns said.

IMPD said Richards had a virtual private network but at one point, the connection dropped and switched to his personal WiFi at his apartment.

That’s what caught the attention of National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. NCMEC alerts law enforcement to internet crimes regarding sexually exploited children.

It contacted IMPD on August 6. ICAC detectives received evidence that an IP address came back to a personal home router with the same name as a current IMPD officer.

Additional evidence from search warrants confirmed the alleged suspect was IMPD sergeant Javed Richards.

On Monday, Aug. 19, Richards was taken into custody and arrested.

Read more from WRTV here