In an article featured on Thursday the 10th of December 2009, by reporter Ned Hibberd, with FOX News in Houston Texas, he covers a new and highly successful program initiated by HCSO's Reserve Forces Command. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office has fielded a new unit dedicated to catching suspects accused of preying on society’s most vulnerable victims. And the members of this team love the job so much, they do it for free.
The Child Predator Apprehension Team (CPAT) serves arrest warrants on wanted pedophiles and child abusers. “When you violate the innocence of a child,” says Chief Deputy Kevin Maples, “to me there is no greater crime.”
CPAT boasts of an 84% arrest rate for the suspects it targets, but the bill for the team’s labor amounts to not one red penny. “The great thing about what we do is that it has no impact to the Sheriff's Office budget and there's no extra cost to the taxpayers of Harris County,” says Maples. That’s because the team is comprised entirely of reserve deputies—volunteers like Maples, who draws a paycheck only from his real job as an advertising consultant.
Then there’s Dep. Cameron Decker. “By day,” Decker explains, “I'm actually a full time medical student over with Baylor College of Medicine, finishing up my M.D.” He admits the combination doesn’t leave him much time for sleep. “You know, leaving the ER, whatever rotation I happen to be on, and then heading out and kicking down doors and getting into high-speed pursuits.” Other CPAT members are doctors and paramedics. As reserve deputies, they must complete the same 560 hours of police academy training as their full-time counterparts and maintain their certification with in-service training.
For more on this article, go to the following link, or visit HCSO directly through our site's LINKS area:
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/091210-sex-assault-suspects-squad
