Tuscaloosa-Area Police Warn Against Vigilante Social Media Trend

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Officials from Tuscaloosa area law enforcement agencies gathered Wednesday to caution the public against an emerging social media trend where private citizens pose as a minors online to lure suspected child sex predators and confront them on social media.

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Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ron Abernathy, District Attorney Hays Webb, Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley, University of Alabama Police Chief John Hooks and Northport Police Chief Gerald Burton were all in attendance for the press conference at the sheriff's office.

Abernathy said his office wants to stress the importance of the threats to public safety as the vigilante videos continue to spur copy-cats online. He said this can endanger public safety while also hindering the ability of investigators to effectively work these cases.

Click the video link below to watch today's full press conference or click here to watch it on our YouTube channel.

Captain Phil Simpson, commander of the West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force, also addressed a recent incident that prompted the press conference while also taking questions from the media.

While Simpson said he could not elaborate on any details of the recent incident or another he mentioned that occurred a couple of years ago

Most importantly, though, Simpson echoed Abernathy when pointing out the dangers to both the investigation and the vigilante.

"This is disturbing because this is something that is very prominent on social media," Simpson said. "Many of these videos result in people being assaulted, people who may or may not be a criminal being very seriously assaulted. If you look at some of these videos some of these assaults rise to the level of a felony. ... You may run into somebody that's gonna lay the beating on you instead of you laying the beating on them."

Simpson also said many offenders the task force interact with may also be armed, which raises the stakes even more as it relates to public safety.

"This raises the danger level to people who are trying to do something good in the wrong way but also to members of the general public because quite often the people who are doing these basically vigilante operations are doing them in public places," he said.

Simpson went on to say those found participating in this social media trend could also faces charges up to and including false imprisonment — something he said could turn the vigilante into a suspect in their own criminal investigation.

"We have seen cases where there was a mistaken identity and the wrong person was attacked and accosted," he said. "We are trying to protect the public and, more importantly, we're trying to protect the children."

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