Detective John Mayse, Boone Police Department and Danielle Janssen, ACCESS, April 16, 2026

On our program today, we are going to be talking about sexual assault awareness month. Joining us, we've got Detective John Mays, Boone Police Department. John, good morning. Good morning, Jim. And also joining us today from Access, we've got Danielle Janssen. Good morning. So Danielle, new to, new to serving Boone County, I guess, relatively new over the last few months. Yeah, six months and just this month. Six months. And you've already got a lot of work for. Yeah. Unfortunately, unfortunately, that's the big thing too. John, we've in the past and have over the number of years, again, brought this topic up here during the month of April, it is sexual assault awareness month. And those are case again, there are cases with people will, they might have an idea about what it is and what's going on. Some things change. And this is one area where different kinds of crime are showing up in here. So yeah, it's kind of expanded because of the internet and social media and stuff. Some of that people don't understand, they're kind of being abused online. And then I want people to be aware that we've had we're getting a lot of people wanting to meet up with younger juveniles and stuff like that. Yes. Yes. And we've we've charged several in the past few months with this wanting to meet up with a with a juvenile. So to be aware, again, this is where we said parents pay attention to what? Yeah, pay attention to what your children are doing, especially online. Every site has some sort of sexual offsite of some kind where people are getting on and chatting, whether that's Snapchat, Facebook, whatever, there's there's offshoots to those. And predators are getting on and pretending to be somebody that they're not. And kids are getting drawn drawn into. So again, and we're talking just here, Boone County, Boone County. So yes, Boone County. So how do we do it for Boone County? Because are there areas where others work on it? And do they let you know or? Yeah, I just worked with somebody from Ohio recently. So so it comes in different ways. But yes, we work with other departments and stuff like that also. So that might remember what was at the recent one where they had the report from Iowa State Police from State Police, where they actually came across some incidents that were going on and traced it to multiple locations around the country. Yeah, yeah, even so. Yeah. Yeah, I did one with the with Texas a few months ago, assisted them with one where the juvenile was from Boone. And the predator was from Texas. And then recently, like I said, from the one is from Ohio. So it happens. These are in Danielle's over here going and this is just the surface, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. So talk a little bit about access, because I know we've had some transition in some of the people that are providing services here. You cover Boone and Green County. Yes, I do. Access stands for Assault Care Center, Extending Shelter and Support. And we're actually celebrating 50 years to this year. We started in 1976 as a rape crisis center to confront and combat the issues of sexual assault and domestic violence in Story County. And since then, we've been able to grow and we serve five counties. So we serve Green, Boone, Story, Marshall and Tama. And we also now have a 24 hour crisis hotline. And we provide shelter for those who are fleeing domestic or sexual abuse. And again, basically, the thing it's expanded a little bit, again, to the area being covered in particular, but challenges to because you have more of an urban setting, if you get into like Story County and rural setting, it's, I mean, it happens in rural parts of the state of Iowa, a lot of those. Yeah, absolutely. Boone and Green, I see my fair share of as much as I do in Story. So it doesn't, I don't think it matters where you're at it, you're going to see it. It's there. Problems are out there too. And I know, John, over the years, we've talked to a lot of different things about when we would talk about rape crisis, things like that and working with the hospital and stuff. And we've had very good people that have made your team, I guess, a team for getting evidence and things like that. Yeah, it takes it takes a lot of different things. The we are all our juveniles and stuff within sexual assault cases are major abuse type cases to go to the Star Center down in West Des Moines, which is a connection of Blank Children's Hospital. There's a new center opening up for adults now in Des Moines. And I think Sharon Knudson, I think you probably probably talked to her before. And for, she's from Madrid, I believe she's a big into that and is putting this new center up for this whole area. And it's kind of a one they have therapy doctors nurses can do pretty much everything that's going to be opening up pretty soon also. So that's going to be nice. Because sometimes, you know, the Boone Hospital is it can be long periods of time before in between times where we when people go in. So keeping people trained and stuff like that is kind of can be a challenge challenge. Yeah, because there's a lot of other things they have to do. Yes, a lot more, a lot of other things, and they have to have so many in a year and stuff. And sometimes ours are delayed. So people go, we don't have a lot of people that may go in in in that timeframe. So sexual assault awareness. When you talk about that, there's a lot of different things that fall under that category talked about the predators. That's a new kind of a new thing that's showing up for a lot of people. Still the basic bottom line is there's a lot of different ways. There's a lot of different ways and not only just the predators online, but also the harassment type stuff online where people are talking about asking for pictures and stuff like that juveniles or even adults and then can turn around into a harassment type situation or to where they're trying to extort money from them. We've gotten a lot of those where that's happened also where they're trying to extort or they're going to share these pictures with all the people on their Facebook page or all the people on their Snapchat or whatever. And with AI, that's making it a challenge too, because you can start changing pictures. That's a whole nother thing. And yes, thank you AI for that part of it too. Danielle, when you're dealing with folks again, how soon do you get called in for different, if John's working on a case and has a victim or something like that, because you really are the victim's assistance here? Yeah. So we can only respond if they have come to the police directly to report or if they go to the hospital, especially if they're going to have a sane kit done. So that's where they can collect evidence and give them paraffylactics for STIs. Otherwise, usually we get our referrals from agencies within the community and we reach out to the people who want an advocate. And we just kind of assist them by explaining what's going to happen as they move forward. We can assist them in court just by being a support system there. And we can also go along with them to any law enforcement interviews. Is it a challenge sometimes to get people to, well, first, obviously you're there offering the assistance, but do they take it right away? Is it sometimes that I would think would be a challenge? Yeah, I think it goes both ways. Sometimes they refuse assistance at first and we hear from them later. Or sometimes they do want our assistance and after a few weeks they might kind of go quiet. We just always remind them that we're here if they need our assistance, unless they want to quit us, we're always going to be there for them until they tell us otherwise. John, I know you get cases, you'll have somebody or you'll have somebody that will file a complaint or you'll have a case where you start investigating, then following through with it. That's another challenge for you. Yeah, and especially in cases like sexual abuse and stuff, you really kind of let the victim decide kind of the route they're going to go. You don't want to have them try. You don't want to tell them to do something they're not ready for. Sometimes at a later date, time can help them be able to come forward and stuff. Sometimes they come in and they're not ready right away and we kind of let them, since they weren't in control of what they act was, we kind of let them try and be in control of how things move forward because we don't want to make things worse on them than what it already is. So we kind of give them that opportunity to decide kind of how they want to move forward with things. I think again, and a lot of people right away, when they think of the sexual assault, they think, right, and it could be men, could be women, either or. But again, it's just so much more than harassment parts and things like that. Those got to be real challenges. Yeah, a few years ago, the state passed a law in regards in the harassment code, which is a lot of people will call it like revenge porn or whatever we call it. In the harassment code, it's harassment nudity, which is basically because of people videotaping or sending pictures or whatever, and then they break up or whatever and one party starts sending pictures out and things. That's one thing we've had a few of in the past few years also. So the challenge is, to me, when I think of this is it's got to take time for you to do this, do these investigations. It doesn't happen overnight. No, it takes a lot of time because like if you do that, if they have kids done and stuff, that takes time to process. If you're trying to find people for interviews, that takes time. If you have to do search warrants for different sites like Snapchat or Facebook or any of the social media sites, that takes time. So all that putting all together takes takes time. You have to gather all, my job is to gather all the facts I can. So gathering all those facts, it's a very personal crime. I know and it's hard sometimes for them to realize how long it can take to get everything together. So it's not like people are being forgotten. Which is in Danielle's got to keep reinforcing it. Yes, we're here to help. And then basically you've got to collect enough evidence that the county attorney feels confident in the prosecution. Yes, we have to have enough probable cause to move forward. And sometimes that can be very difficult because sometimes it can be, we don't have a lot of evidence. So that becomes an issue a lot of times in these cases. In worst case scenario, something continues to escalate for people if they don't report it and don't come in. It can become tragic. Yep. So, you know, I'm guessing you get a few of that clients where you've been working with them that that has happened. Yeah, personally, I haven't had any, but we have had that in our agency in the past. We do have a homicide and violent crimes division as well. And they can work with the family members who were affected by a homicide or any other like stalking, the really intense harassment. They can also help with like funeral arrangements and things of that nature. I think we've visited with them before to come in as a guest on it too. Again, services provided by access. Let's talk a little bit about that because you talked about, you know, being there and helping victims with things that are going on. Other assistants that you can help if they're looking to get out. You mentioned you do have some shelter. Yeah, we have private shelters in Ames and Marshalltown. And it's first come, first serve. So if we're full, we just tell you a call back every morning until we can get you a spot. We also work with other agencies in the community like the Bridge Home and Salvation Army to hopefully help find shelter if we can't provide that ourselves. We also help with basic needs. So like if you need rental assistance where you're living, utilities, groceries, gas cards, we can help with those things as well when you're in dire need as well. So I'm guessing a lot of victims. It's very traumatic. Yes, obviously. And again, victims of all ages too. Yes, yes, all ages. It's a challenge to work your way through all of this. You've been doing this for quite a while. Yeah, and it's like I said, it's all ages. So it can be, I mean, we've had kids down, you know, four or five years old that we've had taken down for an interview. And that's why our juveniles, we usually almost always go to the Star Center for they, it's like I said, they can set up for counseling. The interviews are done there. They have doctor there, nurses, and stuff like that. So I would always tell people at any age, you know, we can't promise what the court system is going to do. So the main thing is that they get the counseling and stuff to help them move forward. Because that's the most important thing, you know, is to get them the help they need to be able to move forward with not having that drag on them every day. It's just it is a challenge. It's out there. It's all over again. Like you said, now the new thing, the internet, sometimes a good thing and a lot of times not so good. Yep. The internet is definitely a challenge. It's during this is this month again, in particular with sexual assault awareness. And again, this is just a month to draw attention to it. We know it happens year around. Yes, all the time. And again, I'm guessing a lot of things are parents for safety's sake, because with the predators that we're talking about right now, pay attention to what they're doing. How do you again, those gotta be the it's difficult to help parents. It's very difficult. They just try and see what they're doing online. Even the gaming sites have branches off off to sexual sites, sexual conversations and stuff with kids. So you have to just kind of see what they're doing and what their a lot of the parents that come in had no idea that they were that their child was engaged in sexual conversations and sending pictures and receiving pictures from individuals and other places. People pretending to be somebody they're not as they can like with AI, they can generate a picture with they can pull other pictures off the internet or whatever. So the thing with the internet is you never know who you're talking to. Most of our assaults in the past before kind of the internet really started going. We're actually physical or physical and people usually people they knew. There wasn't a lot of stranger type assaults. It was usually somebody they knew as a family member. It was, you know, somebody that a friend of theirs or acquaintance of some kind. But with the internet now, you have no idea who they are. They could they could be I mean, the one I did was, you know, they thought the person was 18, 19 years old and he was 47, you know, it's so and like I said, with AI, you can generate a younger picture yourself or whatever. So that's the danger. And you don't know who your child is talking to. And these people are willing to travel to two places to meet up with these people so with these kids. So so you have to kind of try and be aware what's what's your who your kids are talking to and and what they're what they're getting on because kids feel safe at home. That's the other part. And they may do something that they would never do, you know, if they were face to face with somebody, but at home in their own bedroom, you know, they feel safe, the people really can get into a conversation where they just feel comfortable. And they do something that they, you know, never would have done before. But the internet, that's something the internet's kind of has occurred with the internet. So Daniel, for you, what kind of I mean, this is a whole nother thing that they're venturing into right now. How do you guys keep up with that providing assistance there? Again, that's got to be a whole nother challenge too. Absolutely. We like to go over safety planning. So if it's not where you're unsafe in your home, but you're feeling unsafe online, we go through steps to kind of help you put your phone down to help you reset your mind, reset your social medias, like what's popping up the most we can help you with. And just kind of focusing on that internet safety, especially with like the AI stuff that's coming out, like he talked about, we see that with our clients as well. See, it's always there. All new things all the time, you know, we always talk about things like scams and how they never really go away. This is the same kind of thing, sexual assault or varieties of assault. And in different forms. Yeah, like I said, sexual abuse is really expanded into different areas. And like I said, it's expanded into the fraud areas where they're extorting. They may take a picture of you on Facebook and then AI generate a naked picture of you and then say they're going to send it to your grandparents and your parents or whatever. And then try and get you well, I won't send it if you send me $500. You know, this is still a this is still sexual abuse, you know, and they don't want them to see, you know, obviously, they don't want these people to see these these pictures that even though if even if they're generated, so I just tell people don't send them don't send them any money and just I guess forewarn that they may, you know, get some pictures, but it's it's an AI generated picture, you know, so so yeah, it's moved in different areas. Keeping the lines, I guess, for family members, again, keeping that communication open. That's important, especially for if you're dealing if you have children that might be doing online things, or you're finding out all of a sudden, because they're pretty sharp, they're pretty smart on getting online. Yeah, they know how to do it in all of a sudden, they get encountered different things. Yeah, keeping in touch with your kids is the big thing because children are children are really good at manipulating the internet and phones and everything a lot more than their parents most of the time. So sometimes think they got blocks on things. And because it figured out a way to get around those to get get on different stuff. So so it's pay attention. Yeah. Danielle, for you, if people want to find out more about access and assistance available there, what's the best way to go about doing something like that? So we have a website assaultcarecenter.org. Or you can always call our crisis line easiest way to remember that is 515 29 alert. Okay, I'm guessing sometimes you might get a call from somebody and are they going to follow through? Have they visited? Have they have they been in contact with law enforcement? If they've been in contact with law enforcement, more than likely you're you're finding out about it. Absolutely. But otherwise, some might not want to report or might have but want help want somebody to talk to. Yeah, and we we always support them in their own decisions. So we never tell them what they have to do. We just go along with what they're ready to do. All right. It is sexual assault awareness month again during the month of April, but it happens year round every time and Detective John Mays with the Boone Police Department on our program today and also joining us Danielle Janssen with access sexual abuse advocate for Boone and Green County. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having us.