INDIANAPOLIS — The confrontation begins at a side door of Lebanon Senior High School.
Viewers watched via Facebook Live as a woman approached the school, about 40 minutes northwest of downtown Indianapolis, and was greeted by Brian J. Boyer, a band teacher who, in that moment, was allegedly waiting for a 14-year-old girl to meet him for sex.
“Do you wanna come out and talk to me for a minute?” the woman asked.
“Basically, I brought you out here ‘cause we know who you are, I’m definitely not 14, you’ve definitely been talking to a decoy,” the woman said while walking with Boyer into the nearby parking lot.
The nearly 20-minute video is one of dozens posted to the PCI: Predator Catchers Indianapolis Facebook page. Their confrontation with Boyer was eventually interrupted by the school’s principal, who directed the decoy and Eric Schmutte, the group’s founder, to take their complaints to the district’s administration office.
Within hours of the encounter being streamed on Facebook, Lebanon Police announced Boyer’s arrest and the school district placed him on administrative leave. Boyer, whose job was terminated Jan. 29, is charged with one count of child solicitation.
‘Vigilantes’ just want to help. But there are risks.
Schmutte, 34, said he started his group after becoming outraged that child predators aren’t held fully accountable for their actions.
“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,” he told IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network. “So, us exposing them is the next best thing so people can at least know that these guys are predators.”
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Yet, there’s another side to this picture: However noble their intentions, this kind of internet detective work carries significant legal and safety risks.
Online citizen groups hunting for potential predators is by no means a new phenomenon, but it’s often discouraged by law enforcement due to safety concerns for both the citizen investigator and their “catch.” In several instances across the country — including the case that contributed to the cancellation of Dateline NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” — subjects have died by suicide after being confronted by investigators.
And their work will not always be rewarded. While some law enforcement agencies will take their screenshots and videos as tips to investigate, others have outright said they will not accept any information from the groups.
This goes far beyond the concept of making a “citizen arrest.” There is nothing original about what these idiots are partaking in. Sounds like this vigilante group is doing it just for the likes, comments and follows from the SAME fearful, hateful and ignorant “save our children” justice obsessed population
Notice how the police is NOT discouraging them from engaging in these obviously borderline illegal stings, but only relaying the “dangers and risks” involved.
Society is edging closer and closer to “The Running Man” vigilante get-even mentality.
Look daddy, “Every time a cop gets an arrest for a sting, it gives vigilantes a layout to do the same.” Not everyone who is online is trolling children and why do parents allow their young children Internet access without supervision.
“If I saw somebody robbing a bank, I would be more than glad to pull my phone out and record it and hand the evidence over to the police.”
Is this an admission that he tries to get people to rob banks? Wouldn’t that make him a codefendant?
All I have say about this is that these fake hero’s can be set up too , what if no one shows up but the people they are trying to trap know where they live now ? that could suck / will suck for them in the long run , next thing you know LE will be looking deeper in the finger pointers closet . It would be funny to see the look on their faces when they realize that LE is only covering for LE , LOL , frigging suckers
Boring! Someone should set up these roided up knuckle dragging losers against each other. Imagine two of them from different teams showing up to the same spot, and led to believe that the other is the true predator. Then watch them punch each other to death – Now THAT would be entertainment!
Sting operations and vigilantes are purely designed to keep “making noise” about RSOs, especially since they need to keep-up the image they’re selling to the public in order to keep the funding and votes coming in. And the funding needs to be spent on something “useful” so they can keep saying they need it. The whole scheme was built by bad politicians and bad legislators who feed off the public opinion of the mess they created.