Lubbock’s arrest reports keep filling up with child sexual abuse cases, but according to Detective Jeff Buschman, that doesn’t mean Lubbock is more full of predators than anywhere else—it just means we’re really on top of catching them. Which is… reassuring? Maybe? Prosecutors, he says, have been going extra hard on the “most heinous crimes,” landing hefty sentences that make headlines and court reporters wince.
Buschman admits he doesn’t have national data, but national organizations say child exploitation is rising everywhere, which is both horrifying and vaguely comforting in a “hey, at least it’s not just us” kind of way. Local cases tend to split between people kids already know—which is its own nightmare—and online creeps pretending to be teens, which once again reinforces the lesson that the internet is just a giant bowl of red flags.
The detective also says the biggest hurdle is tech companies holding digital evidence like it’s rare Pokémon, especially platforms where messages vanish faster than a West Texas rain cloud. And anonymous reporting? Yeah, that slows things down too. Turns out that solving crimes is easier when detectives know who’s talking.
Still, the department is doing what it can with what it’s got. Buschman hopes one day Lubbock will look back and say, “We did everything to protect the kids,” rather than “Wow, we really let a lot slide while arguing about crosswalk paint.”
If only the city tackled potholes with this level of urgency, right?
