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Police chief says safety is concern for ‘creep catcher’ activity in city

Apr 30, 2017 | 4:45 PM

After videos surfaced online of recent child sexual exploitation hunter or ‘creep catcher’ activity in Prince Albert, the head of the city’s police service is urging caution to those involved.

The online group ‘Canadian Predator Hunters’ has been active in the Prince Albert region recently. The group uses messaging applications to pose as underage children. They lure and confront people they suspect of being pedophile predators and then stream the stings online. During the confrontations, the group explains how they are there to offer help and provide contact information for counselling, mental health or addiction services to those caught. One video of an encounter in the city received nearly 1,000 shares and over 42,000 views.

Police Chief Troy Cooper marked safety as his primary concern around the creep catcher activity in the city.

“They are not sure who they are actually going to meet until they get there,” he said. “When police do that sort of work, of course, we have appropriate training and we do it in a controlled way so we make sure no one gets hurt.”

The second area of his concern involves the chance of interference in active police investigations.

“I am sure the predator hunters are well intentioned, but there is always a potential they could interfere with an active investigation,” he added.

With persons in Canada assumed innocent until proven guilty in court, Cooper said those engaging in this work are “avoiding all of that process.”

“They are assuming guilt and are public shaming,” he said. His preference would be for those who are aware of someone looking for sexual services of a minor to first advise the police and hand over the information to “allow us to take the natural course of the investigation through the courts.”

“That way we have a product that at the end of the day, will allow us to either get help or punishment or the proper process for the persons involved,” he said.

Ultimately, Cooper reiterated the message of how this is “dangerous and complex work” best left to the experts.

“Although they may be well intentioned, they are putting themselves and others at risk and we would rather they turn that information over to us.”

 
tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr