I want to tell you a few things about a man that I admire. That man’s name is Brian Lohse, and he doesn’t know that I’m writing this.
It’s not in Brian’s nature to seek attention. That’s one of the reasons that I admire him. So, since he won’t, I’m going to give him some attention right here and now.
I have been a state cop since 1996. That’s thirty years of seeing every kind of bad thing that you can imagine. Maybe that’s why I am willing to talk about a subject that most people don’t want to think about. That subject is child pornography.
There is a strong movement in our state to protect kids from seeing inappropriate books in our libraries. I understand and I share that concern.
Yet, there is something worse than that. What’s worse is: “kids IN pornography.” Last year, right here in Iowa, there were over ten thousand cybertips (notifications to law enforcement) about child pornography.
YES, I’m talking about videos of little kids being sexually victimized. That’s happening RIGHT NOW in every corner of our state. So, you are probably thinking, “is anybody doing anything about these cybertips?” Well……….. yes and no.
In 2019, when Brian joined The Iowa Legislature, the state only had seven investigators that worked on child pornography cases. You might ask “why were there only seven?” That’s a good question, and it’s a fair question. The answer is “Politics.”
Sadly, no matter how important an issue is, it’s difficult to redirect funding from one cause to a different cause. It shouldn’t be hard, but in the legislature, it is hard for some reason.
Despite that difficulty, several people saw a need there. Brian Lohse, Gary Worthan, Jarad Klein, myself, and a few others worked our tails off. We managed to get enough funding to double the number of child-porn investigators in our state.
That’s a huge accomplishment, and Brian Lohse was there all the way.
Brian is now the chairman of the state law enforcement budget in The Iowa House. That’s a thankless job. Brian Lohse has even INCREASED the level of funding for these types of investigations.
That’s not all that Brian has done either!!
Attorney General Brenna Bird approached Brian Lohse and she said that they wanted to create a special unit to work on “cold case” homicides involving both adults and kids. That request was going to have a HUGE impact on the budget. It was a very tall order.
You know what though? Brian got it done.
Even though that unit is just getting started, there have already been arrests in three different unsolved homicides.
So…… who got funding to work on murders? Who got funding to protect kids from sexual victimization? I’ll tell you who it was. It was Iowa State Representative Brian Lohse.
I said above that I have been a state cop for thirty years. In all of those years, I have never seen a stronger champion of police in the legislature than I have seen in Brian Lohse.
- Jon Thorup
