CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — Groups in Northeast Florida are taking the law into their own hands, filming sting operations against suspected child predators and posting the videos online.
But law enforcement that deals with these cases warns the vigilante “To Catch a Predator” groups do more harm than good and real child victims pay the price.
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Public confrontations oftentimes involve violence and sometimes even shots fired.
Searching “To Catch a Predator” on social media is more likely to turn up amateur vigilante videos than clips of the original Chris Hanson show, and there are even examples here in Northeast Florida.
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“We saw several years back a rise in these trends and then I think we kind of went into a lull. But we have here recently seen an increase,” Detective Ryan Ellis with the Human Exploitation Group at the Clay County Sheriff’s Office said.
Ellis works on child exploitation cases for CCSO.
He estimates dozens of the vigilante groups operate in our region.
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“I don’t think that they really understand the big picture, and while some of them are in it for good reasons, some of them are not,” Ellis said.
The groups generally target suspected child predators by posing as children online, soliciting conversation with suspects and then confronting them in public.
But Ellis argued these private efforts can be extremely dangerous for the vigilantes and the general public.
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“Sometimes these groups can confront people who are armed with firearms. They’re violent individuals, have extensive criminal histories,” Ellis said.
One example happened just last year in Jacksonville, though it was the mother of a victim, rather than a vigilante group, who learned just how dangerous these public confrontations can be.
After finding out her underaged daughter was being texted by an adult, she set up a meeting with the man at a Popeyes restaurant.
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The suspect threatened her with a gun.
When law enforcement was called, the situation ended with an officer involved shooting.
“These are extremely volatile situations. These pose a high level of danger and risk for an array of reasons,” Ellis said.
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Ellis noted law enforcement takes several precautions to ensure confrontations with suspected child predators don’t end in violence.
“We take a great deal, great deal of time and in research into looking into locations, vetting them out, doing de-conflictions to make sure that other law enforcement groups are not in the area,” Ellis said. “Also making sure that we’re not on certain protected property or private property, or we’re not in an area such as close to a playground or an area where children might congregate.”
And due to the amateur nature of the vigilante sting operations, Ellis explained they often create more problems for law enforcement than they solve.
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“We oftentimes see that these individuals also engage in entrapment-type behavior, which causes us issues on the legal end. We also deal with issues of venue. Where a chatter is, or where a UC is, and where a suspect might be could be in multiple different jurisdictions and then they confront them in another jurisdiction,” Ellis said.
Even in the rare instance an arrest is made, more often than not prosecutions are unattainable, according to Ellis.
“We’re in this to protect children. We’re in this to put offenders behind bars. And we’re not in this for clicks or for likes. This is to help protect actual real children,” Ellis said.
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Cleaning up the mess left behind by the groups can pull resources away from cases involving legitimate child victims.
“We might be working an actual live child victim case and then we end up getting pulled away to something that we think could actually be a legitimate child that’s being exploited on the internet and it ends up being certain groups that are talking to these individuals,” Ellis said.
At the end of the day, Ellis argued regardless of how noble the intent of the vigilantes may be, there are plenty of safer and more legitimate ways of reporting crimes against children.
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“Some of these people are in it for the right reasons and they truly want to help. The sheriff’s office is hiring. Fill out an application,” Ellis said. “There are many other ways to put skills to use that can help law enforcement or can help victims.”
Ellis noted the vigilante activities are not technically illegal, although sometimes they could face other charges like trespassing, assault, or false imprisonment depending on the situation.
He said some states are looking at laws prohibiting the activities due to the risk the pose to the public and legitimate child exploitation cases.
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