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When those sworn to protect don't

Since March, three members of local law enforcement have been arrested accused of sexual crimes involving children.

Former Somerville Police Chief, Chris Landers is the most recent.

He's accused of sodomy and sexual abuse.

Just last month, former Florence Police Captain Ken Stanley was indicted on child porn charges.

In March former Huntsville officer Kenneth Haga was also arrested on child pornography charges.

We took these three current cases to a nationally renowned child abuse expert.

She says these former officers make up a small percentage of the hundreds in the Valley who do follow their oath to serve and protect.

Connie Carnes says, "There's really hardly any profession that's exempt from this."

Carnes, a national child abuse expert, says just because a handful of people in a similar line of work are accused of sexual offense charges, does not by any means, indicate it's the norm or work-related.

"I just don't think that the job itself has very much to do with it because many, many people work extremely stressful jobs and are exposed to a lot of violence and different situations and don't do sexual offenses."

It's no secret police officers witness catastrophic events. Events that many hope to never encounter.

But Carnes says there's no literature or research to back up that stress from a job increases the chance of abuse.

"There are typically small percentages in many professions that have these types of incidents and we can't throw the whole profession into bad repute."

It's difficult to profile the types of persons who commit sexual crimes.

It could result from substance abuse, a need for power or control, or pedophilia.

Although it's difficult for the community to hear about charges from a type of person children and adults are taught to trust, Carnes says don't misjudge the rest.

"I think that there's so many more well adjusted, healthy police officers than there are ones that have struggles and we don't want to discourage families from trusting law enforcement and certainly we don't want to create distrust for children for police officers because this happens."

Keep in mind that administrators, the higher-up's at these agencies are doing their job, they're turning in those few suspects and addressing the issue up front.

It goes to show they are actively policing their own officers.