New social media trend could hinder police investigations and land instigators in jail

Yahoo

10-04-2025

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) – Local law enforcement agencies are sounding the alarm about a new social media trend. They hope to warn people of the risks before it gets out of hand.
The West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force says people are trying to take the justice system into their own hands by creating their own traps for suspected child predators and confronting them. In some cases, these confrontations get physical, and the fights are filmed and put on social media. The task force says there's one local case of this trend happening but because it's actively being investigated, no further details can be shared at this time.
The task force is calling it 'vigilante justice' and warns it can have serious risks.
'You don't know if this person is coming armed, you don't know if this person is actually the person that you're trying to entrap, you don't know the backstory,' said the task force commander Philip Simpson, a captain in the Tuscaloosa Police Department.
The task force says child predator investigations are complex and must follow a lot of state and federal laws.
'We do several operations a year here in the greater-Tuscaloosa area. We work with other agencies outside of our county here in west Alabama and any other agency that asks for our assistance,' Simpson said. 'It's something that happens regularly; we're just like every other place in America. We're not any worse off than anybody else is.'
If people try to take matters into their own hands, the task force says it could end up with the suspect not being able to be prosecuted.
'We have the ability to go after these people and make a real difference. We can do it right so that they can be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and the actions, the penalties that they need to face, they can face,' Simpson said. 'This is a full-time task force. We constantly have investigations going, and I would be really, really upset if we had spent a lot of time working on a particular predator and somebody messed that up.'
Not only can this social media trend hinder official investigations, but the task force says the 'vigilante' could catch charges as well.
'Unlawful imprisonment…you could end up being charged with that crime simply by infringing upon their freedom to move. Harassment charges can be brought. What we're seeing in a lot of these videos are felony-level assaults,' Simpson said.
He says TV shows like 'To Catch a Predator' can have an influence on these kinds of trends.
'People see that on TV and think, 'I can do that.' They also see it on TikTok and Instagram and the other social media places, and they go, 'I'm smart enough to do that, I can talk to this person,'' he added.
We reached out to the host of 'To Catch a Predator', Chris Hansen, about the trend. He provided the following statement:
'I think there is an important role for citizen journalists who use social media to share their work. Unfortunately…. when it comes to some 'vigilante' Predator catchers, violence is used, laws are broken, and some criminal activity goes unprosecuted because of the tactics used.'
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