Decatur Police assist GBI’s investigation of man accused of possessing child abuse images
Jamison Parker booking photo. Photo provided by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office
This story has been updated.
Decatur, GA — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested and charged Jamison Parker, 37, of Decatur, on Aug. 17. Parker is accused of sexual exploitation of children. The Decatur Police Department helped the GBI execute the search warrant in this case.
A spokesperson for the GBI says Parker is facing three counts of sexual exploitation of children.
Parker lives in the 200 block of Ponce de Leon Place, according to a spokesperson for Decatur Police. Parker has been released from jail, according to county records. Attempts to reach Parker or his attorney were unsuccessful.
The GBI Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit began an investigation into Parker’s online activity after receiving a Cyber Tipline Report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding the possible online possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material. This investigation led to a search warrant of Parker’s home and his subsequent arrest, according to a press release.
The investigation is part of the ongoing effort by the GBI’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to identify those involved in the trade of child sexual abuse material. The ICAC Program was developed by the U.S. Department of Justice in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the internet, the proliferation of child sexual abuse material, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims, according to the press release.
Anyone with information about other cases of child exploitation is asked to contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation Unit at 404-270-8870 or report via the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline at CyberTipline.org.
Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.
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I don’t know Jamison Parker, and I have no earthly idea about the validity of the charges against him, but I truly question the ethics of publishing someone’s name and photo prior to them having their day in court and having the evidence judged by a jury of his peers.
Time after time we have seen salacious charges leveled against men, famous and otherwise, only to discover the charges were false or unprovable. Then what? How does someone recover their name and reputation after having them publicly destroyed?
I understand the need for clicks, but I’d like to see them acquired with integrity and respect for the rights of the accused.
Per our policies, we only name suspects whose cases we intend to follow through the court system. We intend to follow this case through to its conclusion. When this defendant has his day in court, that will be written about, regardless of the outcome. This is in line with how we have handled similar stories in the past. To see our policy on naming crime suspects, follow this link: https://decaturish.com/about/
I understand the need for policies, but there’s also the reality of human psychology, perception, and reputational damage, and I think we need to ground ourselves in them.
A person has charges level against them. Media often spends weeks and months digging through their lives based, it seems, on the suspects’ tacit guilt. . . months and months, sometimes years. They finally have their day in court, the media reports the outcome, and if they’re acquitted, it’s reported with a fraction of the energy and column space of the reporting leading up to the trial.
That very brief mention of innocence is supposed to balance the damage done? Are the jobs, careers, and homes lost; the reputations and families destroyed ever recovered? Rarely. Is this good policy?
If this man is guilty, then drag him through the mud on his way to jail.
But not before.
If we name a person accused of a crime, it means we intend to follow their case through to resolution. You are welcome to search our archives to see how we’ve handled similar stories. Our handling of this is consistent with how we’ve covered other people accused of similar crimes. We understand if you disagree with our policy about naming crime suspects. You’re welcome to write a letter to the editor on this topic. It may be sent to [email protected]