On Monday May 8, 2017, the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office was notified of a local radio station, KAVV – The Cave 97.7 FM, was airing a “Public Service Announcement” that was inappropriate. Information was obtained from members of the public and some media outlets regarding this PSA, stating that the content was disturbing at the very least.

Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels spoke with media members and through some initial investigation, it appears that the PSA (which has now been taken off of the air) was running in the late evening and/or early morning hours for almost two years. The PSA advised the public on ways to “hide your child pornography from your computer by keeping all content on an external hard drive and hide it where no one can find it”. The radio station owner advised that Possession of Child Pornography should not be illegal.

Sheriff Mark Dannels wants our communities to know, “this is very disturbing to know that a member of our local media, who should be one of the responsible groups of people to provide factual information to our public to keep them safe, is promoting and encouraging criminal behavior. This is a disgusting and unacceptable public service announcement and this type of propaganda encourages evil behavior. Freedom of speech does not include telling people to commit crimes and continuing to pass on this information could lead to judicial action being taken. The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office is now aware of this activity and will continue to seek legal advice on actions that can be taken for the content that has already been released and to ensure this kind of information in not released again.”