Madison Police arrest man on child sex crime charges
MADISON – Madison Police arrested Alexander Schultz, age 23, on one count of second-degree rape, one count of second-degree sodomy, and one count of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act. His bond is set at $120,000.
Madison school resource officers received a report from a middle school staff member that a female student was being picked up and dropped off at school by an unrelated and unidentified adult male.
The student reported being sexually assaulted by Schultz and traveling between Madison and Cullman with him. The victim met Schultz online via Snapchat.
Madison Police used school security footage to obtain the make, model, and color of the Schultz’s car and the first two digits of his license plate. Police then used Flock technology to locate the suspect.
“Patrol officers ultimately received real time information from Flock regarding the location and direction of travel of the suspect and intercepted him less than a block from the juvenile victim’s home, only minutes before the school bus arrived to drop off students,” said Detective Theresa Taylor-Duncan.
Madison city currently has 14 Flock cameras. Amid public concerns around the privacy and abuse of Flock cameras, Captain Nic McRae said the police department has a process for auditing use of Flock cameras and is looking to increase auditing.
“There is audits, and we actually as a command staff, we just had a meeting about this a few months ago to actually up our auditing just because of the public transparency of it. We’re going to do, at Madison Police Department, at least two annual audits, if not more, directed by the chief of police,” said McRae.
Audits include reviewing built-in safety notifications in the Flock system as well as manual verification between license plate numbers in Flock and those in case files.
“Madison Police Department credits Flock Safety for the invaluable information provided by a timely and accurate system, allowing officers to identify, locate, and ultimately arrest a dangerous child predator,” said Taylor-Duncan.
It is unknown at this time if other victims are related to this case, but Taylor-Duncan said Madison Police is continuing to investigate.
