FAC Weekly Update: The Sheriff Who Never Met a Sex Crime He Didn’t Want a Press Conference For

Weekly update for November 3, 2026. This is recording number 402.

Dear Members and Advocates,

It’s been a busy week for police in the Sunshine State and, of course, Sheriff Grady Judd found another excuse to stand behind a podium flanked by mugshots. You’d think after so many of these the novelty would wear off. You would be wrong.

This week the operation was called “Polk Around and Find Out II” – it was the sequel nobody asked for. Grady’s latest weeklong sting delivered 488 charges, 281 arrests in 7 days, involving a guest list of seventeen police agencies, some prosecutors, and a nonprofit called One More Child. It also included, for reasons that remain unexplained, the U.S. Army CID and the Secret Service. Because nothing protects the homeland like an undercover deputy on a dating app.

These operations are labeled as “human trafficking” stings, but let’s take a closer look at whether operation actually produced arrests of any human traffickers. So, there were 117 sex buyers arrested for agreeing to pay for sex with police posing as sex workers, 122 sex workers arrested for agreeing to sell sex to police posing as clients, 31 men arrested for agreeing to pay for sex with fictitious minors, 32 “illegal aliens”, oh, and one Sheriff’s deputy soliciting a prostitute!

But how many people were charged with human trafficking? Zero! Not a single announced charge. A “trafficking” operation that finds no traffickers would ordinarily be considered a huge failure, but for Grady Judd it was a huge success. Why? Because for him it means the money, keeps flowing. One More Child – the private non-profit – requested $825,000 from Florida taxpayers for 2025–2026 as part of a $3,072,317 anti-sex-trafficking program budget. Polk’s sheriff’s office itself runs on approximately $284.5 million.

The money is just too easy to come by. First off, the largest segment of those arrested were prostitutes. I get it. Prostitution is illegal and sex workers are committing a crime, but prostitution is anecdotally referred to as “the oldest profession” and if we’re now going to rebrand it “human trafficking” and spend millions combatting it, this gravy train isn’t going to end. Just think, the original “Polk Around & Find Out”, which was conducted just 5 months ago in May 2026, resulted in 266 arrests. If Judd runs a sting like this roughly every six months, it’s big business.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, a lawsuit was filed in October 2025 against Judd and the department after a child sexual abuse victim was allegedly made to claim her allegations were false and apologize to her rapist, who was later found guilty. Apparently fictitious 14-year-olds on an app get a multi-agency task force while actual ones in Polk County get a retraction form.

But we shouldn’t single out Grady Judd alone. These operations take place across the state. Every October, law enforcement across Florida rediscovers registrants and goes after them. Hillsborough County (“Operation Scarecrow”). Sumter County (“Operation Ghost Town”). Clay County detectives went door to door reminding people of the rules — no lights on, no Halloween decorations and no jack-o’-lanterns outside their homes — and helpfully warning that “anything can be misconstrued as decorations.” Better take down that fall wreath, folks. The common thread across the state: lots of paperwork arrests, lots of press releases and news headlines, but zero reported cases of a child harmed by a registrant on Halloween. That tracks with the research — the most-cited national study on this (Chaffin, Levenson et al., 2009) found no increase in sex crimes against children on Halloween, before or after these restrictions became fashionable. But “Sheriff confirms nothing happened again” doesn’t make the 6 o’clock news and doesn’t justify millions of dollars for their agencies.

The bottom line is that after hundreds of arrests, millions of dollars, dozens of agencies, and press conferences that would make a game show host jealous, what it didn’t produce were: traffickers, rescued children, or safer neighborhoods. It’s never been about outcomes. It’s about optics. So let’s do a little thought experiment. Take the millions flowing into stings, task forces, nonprofit “screening” partners, and door-to-door jack-o’-lantern patrols, and spend it on actually preventing children from being harmed. Radical, we know.

Here’s the inconvenient truth the podium crowd never mentions: the registry and Halloween compliance sting circuit are aimed at the wrong people. Research summarized by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center notes that 95% of sex crimes are committed by people with no prior sex crime convictions – meaning the folks Florida spends every October harassing over porch lights are, statistically, not the ones who will hurt a child next. Leading researcher David Finkelhor put it plainly: the biggest weakness of offender management as a prevention strategy is that only a small percentage of new offenders have a prior sex offense record. And most child abuse is committed by family members or acquaintances, not strangers. The danger isn’t the registrant three streets over with his lights off. It’s far more often someone already inside the child’s life.

So, what does prevention look like? FAC has been pleading with policymakers to shift toward a public health model aimed at stopping abuse before it ever happens. That means perpetration prevention – confidential help for people who are worried about their own thoughts or behavior before anyone is harmed. Programs like this exist, including one aimed specifically at adolescents and young adults. Florida could fund them statewide for a fraction of a sting budget. Prevention also includes real education for parents, teachers, coaches, and youth organizations on grooming patterns, so the adults surrounding children can spot warning signs early.

And contrary to practice, prevention entails treatment and stable reentry for people coming home, because people with records are less likely to reoffend when they have strong family and community support, stable housing, educational opportunities, and good jobs. Every registrant who loses housing over a residency map is a public safety problem the State created itself.

These paperwork felonies don’t protect anyone! Does catching someone who forgot to report a Google drive account make a single child safer? The Department of Justice already funded a study to find out. Researchers found no significant difference in sexual recidivism between registrants with failure-to-register charges and those without. Failing to register didn’t predict reoffending at all. The same study found the registry had no effect on deterring sexual recidivism. In plain English: Florida is jailing people for clerical errors, calling it child protection, and holding a press conference about it.

If Florida were serious about protecting children, it would follow the evidence: fund prevention, support treatment and reentry, and point police at real crimes with real victims. Our kids deserve better!

Sincerely,
The Florida Action Committee

Help get us to the finish line by making a donation here. You can also make a tax-deductible donation to the Florida Action Foundation, Inc. (a 501(c)(3) entity) earmarked for this challenge by contacting [email protected].

SOME HEADLINES FROM THIS WEEK

Florida residency restrictions contribute to sex offender clusters in Central Florida neighborhoods

Firearm Possession by Registrants: What the 3rd Circuit Giveth, the 6th Circuit Taketh Away

Teen indicted after admitting to killing sex offender

When “Close Enough” Becomes a Crime: The Analogue Act, AI Images, and the Promise of Fair Notice

Quick Snapshot: What Readers Think

Our survey, “Florida News Coverage: What Do You Think?” has received 84 responses to each question so far.

• Overall reporting: 52 of 84 respondents (62%) described Florida news reporting as mostly or very inaccurate. Another 27 (32%) said it was a mix of accurate and inaccurate.
• Registry coverage: 61 of 84 respondents (73%) said the viewpoint they notice most supports keeping or expanding registry rules.
• Registry statistics: 67 of 84 respondents (80%) said Florida news outlets explain registry statistics mostly or very inaccurately.

These are the views of people who chose to respond, not a representative survey of all Floridians.