Nearly two decades before the story behind “How to Catch a Predator” reached the big screen, Riverside County found itself at the center of one of the television series’ largest sting operations.
In 2006, dozens of men were arrested in Eastvale during an operation featured on NBC’s “Dateline” series “How to Catch a Predator,” which became known for confronting men who arrived at homes after engaging in online conversations they believed were with minors.
Behind the cameras and confrontations was a large law enforcement operation involving the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who was a sergeant with the department at the time, was among those involved. Bianco said the operation ultimately resulted in the arrests of 50 men.
Bianco said law enforcement became involved after receiving a call from an online watchdog group conducting the sting, bringing deputies into an operation that would eventually put Eastvale — a community in northwestern Riverside County — in front of a national television audience.
But according to Bianco, the impact of the operation stretched well beyond the television episode.
He said what investigators encountered during the sting helped shape the way Riverside County approached investigations involving online sexual predators in the years that followed.
The format behind “How to Catch a Predator,” however, also generated questions about the relationship between television journalism and law enforcement. Bianco said the way the operations were carried out raised legal questions, including how suspects were contacted and brought into the stings.
Now, nearly 20 years after the Eastvale operation, the story behind the television phenomenon is getting the Hollywood treatment. A24’s “Primetime” puts Chris Hansen and the making of “How to Catch a Predator” at the center of its story, including the criticism and controversy that followed the series.
For Bianco, the television series may belong to another era, but he says the issue it exposed to millions of viewers remains one law enforcement continues to confront today.
The Eastvale sting remains a piece of both the show’s history and Riverside County’s — an operation that unfolded in front of television cameras while local deputies worked behind them.
