Cameras, Cops and the Business of Public Shame
Primetime, the new film in theaters from director Lance Oppenheim starring Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen, looks back at To Catch a Predator — the television phenomenon that turned undercover investigations into a form of entertainment, complete with cameras, confrontation, catchphrases and a national audience watching suspects get publicly exposed.
But “To Catch a Predator” stopped being television show and has become a law-enforcement model. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd has made high-profile undercover operations targeting people believed to be seeking sex with minors a prominent part of his department’s public-facing law-enforcement strategy. His office continues to publicize these operations with names, photographs, charges and highly produced press conferences.
To be clear, FAC is not defending anyone who commits a crime against a child. The issue is what happens when the line between law enforcement and public spectacle becomes increasingly difficult to see.
To Catch a Predator taught America that there was an audience for the spectacle of the “predator” being caught and many law-enforcement agencies learned that there was an audience for it, too. And once the cameras arrive, the incentives can change. Justice is supposed to be a legal process, not a television genre.
There is also a broader question about the tactics sometimes used when law enforcement knows that a high-profile arrest makes for a better headline and an even better press conference. Undercover operations can involve baiting, steering conversations, introducing increasingly explicit subjects or conduct, and actively guiding an interaction toward the criminal theory investigators are trying to establish — rather than simply observing conduct that was already underway.
None of that automatically makes an investigation unlawful, and undercover policing can be a legitimate investigative tool. But when the same operation is packaged for maximum publicity, the public deserves to ask where legitimate investigation ends and manufactured spectacle begins. A person who has not yet committed a crime can be drawn deeper into an interaction by an undercover officer; a conversation can be steered toward conduct that was not initially contemplated; and an arrest can then be presented to the cameras as though investigators merely stumbled upon an already-formed criminal intent. That distinction matters, because the press conference shows the audience the arrest — not everything that happened before the handcuffs went on.
Primetime is a movie about television, and it should be viewed through that lens. But it also offers an opportunity to consider what happens when public shaming becomes institutionalized, packaged, and promoted as part of the machinery of law enforcement. When arrests become content and press conferences become performances, we should stop and ask whether we are still talking about public safety — or whether we have turned law enforcement into the show, scripted and designed to generate headlines, elevate the profiles of the people running it, and build public and political support for more funding and more operations.
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Not far from creating the “Running Man” distopia.
Setting innocent folks up for the entertainment ratings.
That show was a blueprint and a “copy and paste” for what law enforcement is doing today. It created a template for all the crooked sherrifs offices. Ironically, Hansen will probably end up suing A24 and it’s affiliates for wrongful depiction, over-zealous creative freedom and inaccuracies of his portrayal on the show. I personally think he’s just mad they kept him in the dark on the project and now wants a piece of the pie.
It’s all about cashing in from fear, hate and controversy.
What sickens me is that I saw an interview with Chris Hansen on the FOXNEWS Jesse Watters Primetime show last week, right after this new film came out. Chris was playing the victim role as he claims he was not consulted, nor was he involved in any part of the film as it was made. The producers used his name, image and likeness to make the film that essentially made Chris Hansen a household name. Poor Chris. I can’t feel too sorry for him.
I saw one episode when I was younger. At that time I cringed about it. I wasn’t sure what the feeling was about. Looking back it was all about how and what Hanson was doing. I found no joy, relief or comfort in what he was doing. It was wrong. I still believe these types of shows are wrong. They are intentionally setting the stage for a crime to happen only for ratings. There is no real victim and that bothers me.
The folks who need to be ousted are the ones producing this kind of content. Whenever I see press conferences or shows or ads for Chris Hanson, Sheriff Grady Judd, Sheriff “Gator” DeLoach, Sheriff Wayne Ivey, etc., I always ask myself: How many skeletons are in his closet? We may never know. But it always seems to be the ones who scream the loudest who have the most to hide.
I lived it with my autistic son with Grady Judd. That entire county is effected by the Judd regime as well as the justice system in that county is flawed. There should be an investigation of the entrapment tactics, the filming all setup immediately after take down, planned in advance and the wide distribution of material during a traumatic event for the victim, the entrapped. Ten years ago a journalist, Noah Prinsky did an expose on Judd and involved Hansen but Prinskly disappeared and no disciplinary or change of operation evolved. Judd sets up stings, he entraps, he or someone in that office sets it up with Hansen, the video is distributed, Judd’s victims are shamed and the the Polk County judicial system embraces what Judd proposes as a crime. It’s wrong.
I think Noah Prinsky is in chicago now doing new…. He will still talk to people regarding these stings. I talked to him last year about them
There is absolutely political motivation behind it. The spectacle makes people feel safe, warm, and comfortable knowing all of us are ousted, while other crimes are running rampant and mostly unpublicized. That feeling that is hand fed to the populous gets sheriffs votes to keep their position and the ratings for the TV shows. EVERYTHING is Motivated by politics, money, or both
We should not forget that the moral panic created by the “to catch a predator” stings resulted in many laws being created just to enable more police stings. This has been a point of the dissolution of our 4th amendment rights writ large. Furthermore most people have no idea of the perverse funding motive behind these. Stings are generally easy to conduct and help boost a localities sex crime statistics which in turn allows them to receive federal and state grant money with very loose rules to how it’s spent. Credit on the distribution metrics is given for # of arrests, charges preferred and convictions made (to include pleas). Prosecutors are also allowed to be reimbursed for the time spent on these cases. The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) in the department of justice is the agency responsible for this distribution of funds. In 2022 the agency and its parent agency FAILED a Congressional Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit of their activities in alignment with the law. But… when the victims of such stings are evaluated 95% have never had contact with the law. Almost all are professionally evaluated at the same risk level as a average person in society. Roughly only 2% have CSAM or other behavioral issues that put them in a dangerous evaluation.
Noah Prinsky, a journalist, exposed this process through a Tampa news article in 2014. Nothing happened. Judd still entraps, he knows how to word it, and train his underlings as to how to entrap, then he gets the publicity. I wish someone of a high level would step in here and bring this political scheme down. It’s costing lives, incrassation costs, perhaps suicides as evidenced by Hansen history. It is wrong.