Editorial: Protect Cullman’s children, but stop hiding the playbook 

 If a person knowingly seeks sexual contact with a minor, communicates with someone he believes to be a minor or travels to meet a child for an unlawful sex act, that person should be investigated, arrested, prosecuted and, if convicted, punished to the fullest extent of the law.  Protecting children is not optional.  But protecting children also cannot become a public relations exercise where the public is told to applaud arrests while being denied basic answers about how an operation was conducted, who controlled it and what public safety benefit it produced for the community where it was staged.  That is the concern with the recent Cullman operation involving the Cullman Police Department, Cullman County District Attorney’s Office and Covenant Rescue Group, a private nonprofit that assists law enforcement with child exploitation operations.  The March operation resulted in five arrests. According to the public information released at the time, the men arrested were listed from Killen, Somerville, Maylene, Hamilton and Toney. None were listed as Cullman residents.  That matters.  If Cullman police and prosecutors were investigating local offenders preying on local children, that is one thing. If an outside organization and local law enforcement created an operation that drew men from across the region into Cullman, that raises a different set of questions.  Why Cullman?  Were these suspects already targeting children in Cullman County?  Were they communicating with people they believed were local children?  Were online profiles, ads or decoy accounts placed in a way that specifically drew suspects into Cullman?  Who initiated the conversations?  Who controlled the undercover communication?  Were sworn Cullman officers directing the operation, or was a private nonprofit effectively running portions of it?  What written agreement exists between the City of Cullman, CPD, the District Attorney’s Office and Covenant Rescue Group?  How many of these cases result in convictions?  How many are dismissed, reduced or resolved by plea to lesser charges?  How many prior operations of this type have been conducted here, and how many local children were actually identified as victims or potential victims?  Those are not anti-law enforcement questions. They are public safety questions.  They are also accountability questions.  When law enforcement conducts a public operation, announces arrests and asks the community to trust that everything was done correctly, the public has a right to ask what records exist, what rules governed the operation and what safeguards were in place.  Private nonprofits may do valuable work. They may have former law enforcement, military or investigative experience. They may help agencies that lack manpower or technology. But private organizations are not elected. They are not directly accountable to Cullman voters. They are not subject to the same public oversight as police departments, prosecutors and city officials.  That is why the public role of Covenant Rescue Group deserves scrutiny.  The issue is not whether child predators should be arrested. They should be. The issue is whether a private nonprofit should help design or participate in law enforcement stings inside Cullman without the public being allowed to review basic nonsensitive records after the fact.  No one is asking police to reveal live investigative tactics that would endanger children or compromise future cases. No responsible newspaper would publish information that helps predators avoid detection.  But that does not justify a blanket refusal to provide records.  The public can be told whether there was a memorandum of understanding. The public can be told what public money, manpower or facilities were used. The public can be told who approved the operation. The public can be told whether the suspects were local targets or regional targets drawn into Cullman. The public can be told conviction data from past operations. The public can be told whether any local victims were identified.  If specific records must be withheld, then officials should cite the specific legal basis and release redacted versions where possible.  Instead, the public has been left with arrest announcements and silence.  The District Attorney’s Office has not answered open records questions for more than a month. The Cullman Police Department’s response came through the city attorney as a denial. A rebuttal was sent. The deadline to respond has passed without the promised answer.  That is not how public trust is built.  Cullman does not need law enforcement by press release. Cullman needs law enforcement by measurable results.  If these operations are working, show the results. Show conviction rates. Show how many cases survive court scrutiny. Show whether local children are safer. Show whether offenders already operating in Cullman County are being identified. Show whether the same resources could produce better results through local investigations, school-based reporting, cyber tips, sex offender compliance checks, probation and parole coordination, digital forensic work, victim services and parent education.  There are proactive ways to protect children without turning Cullman into a destination point for people who otherwise may never have come here.  Go after local offenders. Monitor registered sex offenders who violate restrictions. Work cyber tips. Investigate child sexual abuse material. Build stronger reporting channels in schools. Support victims. Educate parents. Train officers. Use state and federal task forces. Prosecute real cases with real evidence and track convictions, not just arrests.  Arrests make headlines. Convictions protect the public.  That distinction matters.  Cullman residents should not be asked to accept a simple answer of, “Trust us, we caught bad people.”  Trust is earned through transparency.  If the City of Cullman, Cullman Police Department and Cullman County District Attorney’s Office believe this operation made Cullman safer, they should explain how. If a private nonprofit played a key role in the operation, officials should explain what that role was. If public records exist, they should be released unless a specific, lawful exemption applies.  Protecting children and demanding accountability are not opposing values.  They are the same value.  The public has every right to support aggressive prosecution of child predators while also demanding that law enforcement not import danger, stage operations for arrest numbers or shield the details from taxpayers afterward.  Cullman’s neighborhoods are not props.  Cullman’s children are not talking points.  And public safety should never be measured by how good an arrest announcement sounds on social media.  (Publisher’s note: Cullman County DA sent a blanket response at the time of press denying all records requests citing the same statutes the City of Cullman cited. A rebuttal will be presented to his office Tuesday. A second rebuttal was sent to the City of Cullman on Monday, June 8.)