ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (KWQC) – They don’t have badges. They’re not authorities. But a volunteer group says it’s doing what overworked police departments often can’t: pose as child decoys online and build evidence against predators.
“The interaction between our adults that are posing as children — we record everything,” Aaron Snidle, head of Predator Poachers Illinois, said. “Keep track of it, then we go out and confront.”
Snidle said the group never makes first contact — and never takes the conversation in a sexual direction. That discipline, he said, is what makes their evidence hold up.
He said his investigations have led to 49 arrests across nine states. Twenty, he said, ended in convictions totaling 190 years in prison.
The method brought the group to Rock Island last month. Their suspect: Benjamin Morris — then the executive director of Quad City Arts.
Predator Poachers said Morris contacted its decoy earlier this year.
Armed with the transcripts, the group tracked him to the Quad City Arts building on June 26. Snidle recorded the confrontation.
Out on the sidewalk, Snidle read transcripts of Morris’s conversations with the Predator Poachers decoy.
“This one says, ‘Hey, I’m younger than I said.’ And you said, ‘That’s even better.’ He says, ‘I’m 13.’ You said, ‘Perfect, as long as you’re into the older daddy types.’ He said, ‘What’s the youngest you would like?’ And you said, ’12, maybe I would mess with a 10-year-old.’”
Morris explained it to Snidle like this:
“It’s more like role-playing,” he told Snidle. ”The fun I have with it, I guess. The thrill of talking to someone.”
Rock Island Police confirmed they responded after being tipped off by Predator Poachers.
Morris has not been charged with any crime. Police said the investigation remains open.
Morris has resigned from Quad City Arts. The organization said it believes none of its participants or students were ever harmed.
Morris did not respond to an email from TV6 Investigates.
Snidle said his “catches,” as he calls them, run the gamut.
“They’re every type of walk of life,” he said, “people that wear a suit to work every day, very successful, they blend in. They literally can be any person you’ve talked to at any given time.”
Snidle got into this work after learning his own neighbor — someone who had been inside his home — was caught by volunteers.
“Put your parental controls in place and always check their devices,” Snidle said. “Look to see who they’re talking to.”
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