New York Times on To Catch a Predator

The Times has a very interesting article about To Catch a Predator and the suicide that resulted during a raid. The article really focuses on a point that I think is the genuine problem with the show - the coordination between private and public actors:

Each party to the bargain compromises its professional standards. Rather than hold police accountable, “Dateline” becomes their partners — and may well prod them to more invasive and outrageous actions than they had planned. When Mr. Conradt did not show up at the “sting house” — the usual “To Catch a Predator” format — producers allegedly asked police as a “favor” to storm his home. Ms. Conradt contends that the show encourages police “to give a special intensity to any arrests, so as to enhance the camera effect.”

The police make their own corrupt bargain, ceding law enforcement to TV producers. Could Mr. Conradt have been taken alive if he had been arrested in more conventional fashion, without SWAT agents, cameras and television producers swarming his home? Judge Chin said a jury could plausibly find that it was the television circus, in which the police acted as the ringleader, that led to his suicide.

The show and the organization Perverted Justice do things that would normally be considered entrapment or would otherwise be impermissible for police to do alone. Because the two parties coordinate without specific government instructions, the government does not think there is a problem. If this was a one time thing, I might agree with that conclusion. However, since all the parties do this on a regular basis, there are serious questions about whether the explicit instructions need be given. Instead, the private actors know exactly what to do based upon past experience. They truly become arms of law enforcement. This problem extends well beyond the suicide. This represents a unique, but dangerous area of development in government crime-fighting techniques.

Comments

[Mark]

This went way beyond a 'news organization' reporting on an issue or event, they made the story happen. Just like the whole 'Catch a Predator' series. They shouldn't he able to hide behind the 'Freedom of the Press' once they cross that line.