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The Explorer case out of Louisville, Kentucky, blew the doors off a scandal that we are diving deep into this week.
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For years, the Louisville Metro Police Department let its youth post operate as a hunting ground. Starting around 2011,
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officer Kenneth Betts, the face of the police explorer program at their department, and other officers groomed
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and sexually abused teens they were supposed to be mentoring. complaints started hitting the
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department, but instead of blowing it up and warning the public, LMPD let Betts quietly resign and kept the program
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alive. It took civil lawsuits, and an FBI investigation to expose just how deep it went. At least seven known
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victims, multiple perpetrators, and a department that buried problems instead of shutting them down. Once the scandal
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finally blew open, the system scrambled to catch up. Federal prosecutors sent key officers, including vets, to prison.
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Some others walked away with lighter sentences. And in 2021, the city and Scouting America paid out a 3.65 million
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settlement to seven victims. This case helped bring attention to this issue, but there are so many more Police
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Explorer program scandals. Watch our full episode to see just what all we uncovered.