Sipowicz Goes Cyber

As Internet crime proliferates, local cops--most of them young--pioneer a new beat on the Web

Marty Kolakowski doesn't fancy himself a gifted writer. But the nerdy 25-year-old has a knack for creating believable characters. Among his favorites is Melissa, a cute high school freshman who spends her evenings listening to Creed and Dream Theater--and chatting about sex online with adult men. Her mom, Melissa tells these men, is so strict that she is thinking of moving in with her stepsister, a party girl who shacks up with a boyfriend.

Kolakowski, an investigator for the Wayne County sheriff's department in Detroit, went online with the screen name Melissa83 about a year ago as bait for pedophiles who,...

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