Vancouver police on Thursday arrested a Neighbors on Watch volunteer for allegedly possessing child pornography.
Bradley Lebow, 31, of Vancouver faces five counts each of first- and second-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to a Vancouver Police Department news release.
He appeared Friday in Clark County Superior Court, during which time Judge Bernard Veljacic set Lebow’s bail at $10,000. An arraignment hearing was scheduled for Dec. 7.
Detectives with the Vancouver Police Department’s Digital Evidence Cybercrime Unit started investigating Lebow after they received a tip Nov. 29 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a local IP address that was accessing child porn, the police news release states.
Police combed through the data for a Google account and uncovered more than 1,000 videos and images of child porn, according to a probable cause affidavit. The videos and images featured children as young as 4 to 6 years old, according to the affidavit.
Police searched Lebow’s home and subsequently arrested him.
“(Lebow) confirmed the Google account was his, and he was the sole person responsible for downloading the child pornography and using it for sexual gratification,” the affidavit says.
Lebow has been a volunteer with the police department’s NOW program since 2014. His status as a volunteer has been suspended pending the investigation, police said.
NOW volunteers don’t carry guns, but they do receive training from police in using radios, observation skills and the legal aspects for what constitutes a crime. They are trained not to confront people, but to simply radio their base station operator, another volunteer who is in direct contact with 911 dispatchers and police.
