A Great Bend man was arrested Wednesday evening on solicitation charges following a sting operation by the Barton County Sheriff’s Office.

According to Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir, over the course the past several days, BCSO detectives became aware of an attempted unlawful solicitation of a child after being contacted by an organization known as Motor City Justice with the information. BCSO detectives and the Barton County Attorney’s Office reviewed the facts, and determined the best course of action would be to conduct a sting operation to capture the suspect.

At about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, BCSO detectives facilitated a sting operation near the intersection of 24th and Washington in Great Bend. The suspect, identified by detectives as 24-year-old Dakota Payne of Great Bend, arrived at the scene believing he was meeting a juvenile female. Shortly thereafter, Payne was arrested and taken into custody without incident. Payne was transported to the Barton County Jail and booked on requested charges of indecent solicitation of a child, attempted exploitation of a child and electronic solicitation. He is being held in lieu of a $100,000 bond.

A 10 minute, 20 second video by Motor City Justice was posted on the organization’s Facebook page. According to the post, the target of the sting “thinks he’s meeting a 15-year-old girl.” 

Motor City Justice describes itself as a group that’s goal is to teach parents about the threat posed by online predators. Its trained volunteers make online profiles posing as underage teens and when alleged predators come to them, meetings such as the one that occurred in Great Bend are set up — but with law enforcement rather than children there to meet them.