Benjamin Ashford|'Predator catchers' cover the USA, live-streaming their brand of vigilante justice

The Benjamin Ashfordconfrontation often starts with a simple question: “What are you doing here?”

In video after video posted by groups across the country, a version of that question is posed to a panicked man who, according to the makers of the videos, expected to meet a child he'd sent sexual messages to online.

The men soon learn they were tricked – not by police, the FBI or law enforcement of any kind – but by a complex decoy operation set up by so-called “predator catchers."

Essentially modern-day iterations of the early 2000s TV segment “To Catch a Predator” tailor made for the social media age, the videos are made by everyday citizens intent on catching and shaming people they believe would abuse children. Some confrontations are live-streamed, others are posted online in edited videos.

Predator catchers seem to be nearly everywhere: USA TODAY found evidence of their stings in about three-quarters of U.S. states in recent years. No formal national organization links them all; they operate a ragtag network of like-minded people spreading their brand of justice to a massive social media following.

Some formally organize, including the nonprofit Bikers Against Predators, which works with volunteers to set up operations across the country. Other individuals and small groups are active in their local communities, like Musa Harris – known as the Luzerne County Predator Catcher in Pennsylvania. Still others are social media influencers who film confrontations with their targets in public places.

On social media, the predator catchers are cheered on by people glad to see alleged sexual predators exposed. Some experts and law enforcement officials, however, have a more conflicted view.

Xavier Von Erck, a founder of the group Perverted Justice that worked with Dateline NBC to produce “To Catch a Predator,” told USA TODAY part of the driving force behind today's self-governing predator catchers has changed.

“There seems to be more of a motivation nowadays to expose these guys to enhance an individual's social media stature than there is to build an organization that can work with police and get arrests,” Von Erck said.

Times have also changed. When he started out, Von Erck said few laws were on the books prohibiting the online grooming of children. Today, modern-day groups run up against a complex landscape of laws that don’t always support their operations and face the ire of police and prosecutors at odds with their methods.

"We don't have a criminal justice system in the United States where vigilantes or citizens investigate crime," said Indiana prosecutor Eric Hoffman of Delaware County.

Doing what's necessary

Those who identify as "predator catchers" say their motives are pure: They want to expose those who prey on children.

"We want to catch the sickest of the sick. We want to catch the worst guys," said Bikers Against Predators President Robert Bloom, who goes by the name "Boots" online.

Predator catcher operations have been credited with arrests all across the country, including recently in Winchester, Indiana; Albany, Oregon; Lower Burrell, Pennsylvania; and University City, Missouri. 

Bloom and his team of about a dozen volunteers have been confronting and catching people since 2021. The goal, he said, is to make communities aware of potential predators among them and deliver solid cases to law enforcement. Out of roughly 300 investigations, he estimated about one-third have led to successful court cases.

“Our mission has always been to spread awareness to the community, and our videos do that pretty easily," Bloom said. "But at the same time we want them to face justice and pay for these crimes."

Even if their efforts don't result in criminal charges, some predator catcher groups say the exposure and shame of alleged offenders is worth it.

“The way I see it, the justice system is not doing what it needs to do as far as locking up these guys and giving them actual sentences,” Eric Schmutte, founder of Predator Catchers Incorporated, told the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network, in 2021. “So, us exposing them is the next best thing so people can at least know that these guys are predators.”

Others push back on the notion they are motivated by internet fame.

"To me, it's not about anybody knowing what I'm doing," Austin Spain, who runs Bedford Predator Patrol in Indiana, previously told the Indianapolis Star. "It's about making the world safer for our kids."

What happens in a typical video?

Dozens of videos live streamed or posted to video platforms such as TikTok and YouTube document the "predator hunter" process. Videos often rack up hundreds of thousands of views and can last as long as an hour or more.

Every operation is distinct, but the framework follows a familiar pattern: In the days or weeks leading up to a confrontation online "decoy" profiles are set up on dating apps or through social media platforms appearing to be those of young children. Then, the predator catchers wait for the friend requests and messages to roll in.

When a target turns the conversation sexual and wants to meet with the decoy, a time and place is set, often at a public place, such as a store or gas station. Bloom said it's important to let the target lead the conversation to avoid the appearance of "baiting" them, which can hurt evidence in court.

The videos of the interactions that follow often include a heated exchange. The predator catchers often do their own interrogations, which sometimes spiral into arguments and threats.

"I want you to be honest ... Admit that you came here to meet a child," Dustin Lampros, an MMA fighter who also posts predator-catching videos on YouTube, said while confronting a man at a store in a recent video.

"You're really pissing me off," Lampros said as the man responded with denials.

Subjects of the decoy operations sometimes say they knew they were being set up, or claim they didn't believe the person they were talking to was really a child. When proper remorse is not forthcoming, they are commonly threatened with a call to their wife or employer.

If the alleged predators make a run for it, the predator catchers may follow them to their homes. The encounters sometimes end in arrest, but other times, police will just take a statement and say they'll investigate further without taking anyone into custody.

Bloom takes a different tact. When he talks with his subjects, he tries to keep a calm tone and tell them what they want to hear to get them talking and to admit more on camera, he said.

Those who take a more confrontational, aggressive approach with their targets "are going to get hurt. They're going to get shot," Bloom said.

Tenuous criminal cases

Depending on state laws, some type of child solicitation charge may result from the civilian sting operations, or police may uncover additional evidence of online child sex crimes.

But a growing number of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors are warning against such improvised investigations, which they say amount to cyber vigilantism. 

Hoffman, the Delaware County, Indiana, prosecutor, said evidence collected by predator catcher groups won’t hold up in court, and he won’t buckle to pressure to prosecute such cases. One group operates out of Muncie, part of his jurisdiction, but Hoffman said there have been no recent cases because the group knows his stance.

“I have no problem getting perverts off the street," Hoffman said. "But it just has to be done in the appropriate legal, ethical and safe way.”

How a 'predator catcher' encounter can backfire

Experts worry predator catcher operations put public safety at risk and can jeopardize getting a conviction in court – leading to potential predators walking free.

In Hartford City, Indiana, police said an altercation turned violent and had to be broken up by an officer last month. In Winston Salem, North Carolina, a confrontation inside a Target ended with a shot fired, WGHP reported two years ago.

And in an infamous case that contributed to the cancellation of the NBC Dateline series, the subject of a sting operation took his own life.

In some cases, law enforcement already had a suspect on their radar, but intervention by a predator catcher group prompted the suspect to delete evidence of their crimes, thwarting a legitimate investigation, Hoffman said.

In some jurisdictions, a suspect's conduct is only illegal if they are talking to actual child or law enforcement posing as a child – self-proclaimed "predator catchers" don't count.

Mary Graw Leary, a former prosecutor and a senior associate dean at the Catholic University law school, said legal statutes have elements that have to be proven in court, which citizens with no training may not know.

“Like all investigations, they have to be done very professionally and correctly, so there can be issues about preservation of evidence, there can be issues about potential entrapment,” she said.

In Orange County, California, District Attorney Todd Spitzer has made it clear to law enforcement that he will not bring charges against any suspect caught in a predator catcher trap, unless police can conduct their own investigation without relying on evidence collected by citizens, according to a 2023 memo to police chiefs provided to USA TODAY.

“Cyber-vigilantes, even when well-intentioned, lack the training necessary to properly and safely investigate these cases,” Spitzer wrote. “The Orange County District Attorney’s Office does not condone or endorse this behavior and encourages anyone who believes criminal activity has taken place to report it to law enforcement and avoid direct confrontation.”

An uneven response from law enforcement

Bloom thinks it's a mistake for prosecutors to blanketly refuse to take on cases reported by predator catchers, but he understands why some DAs have concerns about the evidence collected by groups who aggressively confront subjects and seem most interested in streaming dramatic videos.

"They're are going to ruin it for us in those areas because they’re acting ridiculous," he said. "They're trying to do too much and do that for the views."

Still, in some parts of the country, arrests and convictions in cases initiated by predator catchers have been racking up. Predator Catchers Incorporated boasts on its website of 150 arrests and 61 convictions based on its investigations.

In Albany, Oregon, police arrested 26 people in March and April after reports from a California-based predator catcher, according to Public Information Officer Laura Hawkins. She said the local prosecutor filed charges in all the cases, and at least a couple have already led to guilty pleas.

“Personally, I’m not a fan of the methods here, but the intent is good,” Albany Police Chief Marcia Harnden said in a statement.

Predator catchers can't protect all kids

Predator catcher efforts can't fix one tragic reality: Most abusers of children are not strangers on the internet, but rather, already part of the children's lives. Bloom said he's helped expose some subjects who were also abusing their own family members.

Many predator catchers efforts focus on the most sensational kind of child sexual abuse, so-called "stranger danger," said Ryan Shields, a criminology professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and an expert on child sexual abuse prevention.

Even so, the problem of the exploitation of children online is real, Shields said. Parents and guardians are the first line of defense. Keeping kids safe online includes:

• Fostering an open dialogue at home.
• Having ongoing conversations about how to use the internet, establishing family rules and expectations about internet use and knowing what to do if kids see something that makes them uncomfortable.
• Talking to kids about what to do if someone online asks them for pictures or personal information, and what to do if that happens to a friend.
• Discussing whether monitoring children's social media use is the right choice for your family.

Don't scare kids about being online, Shields said; give them the tools to navigate it while offering support.

"One of our shared values is that we want to keep kids safe," he said. "We really need to think big in terms of solutions ... and not focus on things that are unlikely to really move the needle."

Contributing: Holly V. Hays, Indianapolis Star