Andrew Christian Hammock, Child Sex Exploitation, FL 2024

Andrew Christian Hammock, a 48-year-old former Margate police officer, is headed to federal prison for more than 18 years after attempting to lure what he believed was a 14-year-old girl into sexual acts and demanding she produce child sex abuse images. Hammock, of Boca Raton, Florida, was sentenced to 18 years and 8 months by U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard in Jacksonville. The case exposes a shocking betrayal of public trust by a sworn law enforcement officer.

Hammock was convicted by a federal jury on June 25, 2021, following a trail of digital evidence that included over 4,700 private messages sent through a social media app. The recipient was not a teenager, but an undercover FBI agent posing as a minor. Despite knowing the purported age, Hammock didn’t back down—he escalated. He commented on how the girl would look in a bikini, asked about her sexual history, and admitted he could get in serious trouble for communicating with a minor.

Far from hiding his identity, Hammock flaunted it. He sent photos of himself in his Margate Police Department uniform, positioning himself as a protector while grooming the supposed child. He told the undercover agent he was aroused by their conversations and expressed a disturbing desire to help her achieve her first orgasm. His messages weren’t just predatory—they were calculated, manipulative, and cloaked in the authority of his badge.

The defendant repeatedly demanded explicit images of the minor’s genitals, pushing for visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct. Those same urges led to one of the charges: attempting to produce child sexual abuse material. The phone used in these crimes was ordered forfeited by the court—a small but symbolic step in dismantling the tools of digital predation.

Investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation alongside Hammock’s own department, the Margate Police Department, the case reflects a rare instance of internal accountability. Prosecution was handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Kelly S. Karase and Ashley Washington, who emphasized the severity of Hammock’s abuse of power. He will now serve a 6-year term of supervised release upon release and must register as a sex offender for life.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, the Department of Justice’s nationwide initiative launched in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation. The program combines federal, state, and local efforts to track down predators, dismantle networks, and rescue children. Hammock’s fall from lawman to felon underscores a grim reality: sometimes, the predator wears a badge.

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