Well, a local group now going undercover
online to lure alleged child predators.
They do have a large following on
social media exposing the predators
on their YouTube channel. However,
police say they do not support
these cyber vigilantes.
CBS, it's Dana Marie Mcnicholl
spoke to law enforcement about
why they aren't happy with
these groups attempting to take
justice into their own hands.
And I have other pictures and
chats talking to a friend. This
YouTube channel was created to expose
people online praying on kids.
Guys, I'm elected security.
No, I'm going to go straight
to the Police Department
CC unit known as Creeper.
Casher is run by a team of people out
of San Diego taking it upon themselves
to catch predators. In the Act
I saw to catch a predator,
I just always wondered how many
creeps were like in my area.
It's led by this man who goes by Ghost.
When you catch one, another
one appears. In your inbox.
It starts with a decoy
account for a fake child,
usually under 14 years old.
AC unit is on all social media apps,
including chat rooms,
forums and websites chatting with men who
are pretending to be teens themselves.
The conversation usually ends with
predators sending and asking for
explicit photos from the child.
All we do is we set up a profile
and then they come running.
What are you doing here? Why?
Because I know what you're doing here.
When the alleged predator agrees
to meet up with the child,
the camera starts rolling.
The interaction is live streamed on
a cell phone for CC units collective.
263,000 followers on Instagram and YouTube
there are shook for sure.
Sometimes they run and we will
follow them, so that way the
police can identify these people.
Despite his work leading to charges and
arrests, most law enforcement agencies
do not condone his sting operations.
We've struggled with addressing it
because they aren't doing some good.
Detective Garrick Nugent and
his team handles cases of
Child Exploitation regionally.
They conduct similar
investigations using decoys,
warning groups like C unit
that they may be endangering
their own safety while pushing
predators further underground.
We've been called to
several of the the accounts,
but because as you can imagine.
There's so much evidence that needs
to be collected in those and we're
only being given a snippet by the
individual there at the scene saying look,
he's been chatting with me
and this is what he said.
Without having the totality of
everything that the the big picture,
we can't really make an
arrest right then and there
if a predator is arrested.
Detective Garrick says prosecuting
them could be extremely difficult
because the evidence may not
stand up in a court of law.
Police cannot seek out individuals first.
A lot of the chatting that.
They're doing it.
If if we were to be doing it,
it would be unlawful.
We are forbidden from bringing
up anything about sex.
If we did, it's entrapment.
They don't have to abide by the same
rules and regulations that we do.
C unit isn't the only team
in San Diego doing this work.
Go says he can't speak for other accounts,
but he's aware of the laws and
avoids entrapment, hoping police
can use his evidence to prosecute.
They always approach us.
We never make first contact, ever.
Evidence is then handed over to the police,
including usernames and video recordings.
A lot of that is very good information,
but what we need is them to actually provide
us with their computer and their phones.
And we need to be able to extract the
original recording for evidentiary reasons
and and they're just not willing to do that
if they confiscate my phone for
like a year or months on end.
I'm not talking to just one creep.
I'm talking to like 20-30 at a time.
Even if they do make an arrest
on these people that we catch,
ultimately it's up to the DA whether
she wants to file the charges or not,
go says since he has experienced
pushback from the San Diego District
Attorney's office, he no longer conducts.
Patches in San Diego County, but travels N
they want me to quit,
but I'm still going to do it.
Whether you arrest them or not,
I'm going to still expose them. For
CBS8. I'm Dana Marie mcnichol.