Recently a joint task force of 40 law enforcement officials, including members of Federal agencies in Texas and Alabama, conducted a 2 day operation with the intent to apprehend offenders in the illegal sex trade surrounding Southeast Texas. The task force successfully made 14 arrests during the operation.
There were 2 separate operations conducted simultaneously at 2 separate hotel locations during this timeframe. Both male and female undercover officers were posing as runaway juveniles communicating through Back Page ads to set up meetings and ultimately catch the perpetrating Johns.
How Whooster Helped
By utilizing Back Page ads the task force had one critical source to information necessary to gain valuable intelligence prior to the suspects arriving at the hotel… a cell phone number. By reversing these cell phone numbers through Whooster the task force was able to attain the first and last names of the suspects within 5 seconds. This information greatly enhanced a crucial window of time to conduct a threat assessment and preliminary identification of the suspect prior to their arrival. Whooster also included in the data returns the cell phone carrier and porting date which was utilized in the subpoena process of the cell providers.
Source: Sergeant, Criminal Investigation Division, Local Police Department
