{"id":325193,"date":"2026-11-11T00:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T00:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/325193\/"},"modified":"2026-11-11T00:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T00:48:08","slug":"pennsylvania-das-civilian-predator-groups-work-on-process-to-catch-criminals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/325193\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania DAs, civilian predator groups work on process to catch criminals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ed<\/a>WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n

Years ago, a close friend of Brian Knepp was personally affected by the actions of a child predator. In 2022, Knepp started his online operation and named it 814 PredHunters. <\/p>\n

“I felt betrayed,” he said. “I wanted to make every effort to stop that happening from another family to another family.”<\/p>\n

A civilian operation grows<\/p>\n

What\u2019s happened since has been a slippery slope between civilian action and law enforcement. <\/p>\n

“It’s proven,” Knepp said. “If it wasn’t proven, I would never say it was. We’ve caught in West Virginia, New York, Ohio, North Carolina, and South Carolina.”<\/p>\n

Knepp and those who work for him pose as underage kids through Facebook profiles. <\/p>\n

“We don’t ever hit anybody up,” Knepp said. “They sit there and wait on an adult to hit them up. We don’t ever target anybody. That individual finds my decoy and begins the communication. Once we have that communication of a meet-up, then it goes to law enforcement at that point.”<\/p>\n

Knepp told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News Four that his efforts have contributed to several convictions, including 76 in Pennsylvania. <\/p>\n

Where civilian stings hit legal limits<\/p>\n

While that sounds encouraging, it\u2019s not a perfect process.<\/p>\n

“It’s communication between two grown men,” Beaver County District Attorney Nate Bible said. “They know at this point that is not a crime. To hand over those communications and say, ‘look at the stuff that he’s saying, and he thinks this is a 10-year-old child.’ That right there alone is not anything you can file charges on.”<\/p>\n

Prosecutors want to take over the investigation<\/p>\n

Bible is one of many in Western PA who have said that to the PredHunters, and other online civilian groups. <\/p>\n

“Civilians have information. Law enforcement collects evidence,” Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli said. “We don\u2019t treat them any differently. We told them exactly what we tell anyone who submits a tip.”<\/p>\n

Ziccarelli said there\u2019s a reason officers are trained to find potential predators. <\/p>\n

“They understand the law, and they know that we have the right messaging and that we are doing the right thing,” she said. “They go through extensive training to be able to withstand that and to be able to know what they need to collect. We have so many people with hands on deck on these issues, whether it be local law enforcement, state agencies or federal agencies. The attorney general’s office has their own child predator division.”<\/p>\n

While messages from potential predators can seem suspicious, investigators need to prove it themselves. <\/p>\n

“Those [online] accounts need to be turned over to law enforcement,” Ziccarelli said. “[Investigators] take over those accounts. They have to take over ownership of those accounts. All these individuals in these civilian groups need to do is turn over their information to let law enforcement conduct a proper investigation.”<\/p>\n

“We can centralize [the messages], which is sort of like a one-way wiretap,” Bible added. “Then, we\u2019d had one of my detectives take the account over.”<\/p>\n

Even then, it\u2019s not just up to the district attorneys if charges lead to arrests.<\/p>\n

“Our bench doesn’t have an appetite for us to do it any other way,” Ziccarelli said. “I happen to concur with them. If some of these groups wanted to talk about lesser charges that have been accepted in other counties, that’s fine. They’re not accepted here. On two instances, we tried to bring cases forward based on evidence collected or information collected by civilian groups, and our bench does not have an appetite for it.”<\/p>\n

The group says it is filling a gap<\/p>\n

Despite those hurdles, 814 has contributed to arrests across Western PA. <\/p>\n

Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele said the group\u2019s efforts helped in his area, but not every investigation yields results. <\/p>\n

“There are going to be times where we get information brought by these groups, and we won\u2019t have enough information,” Aubele said. “I truly believe that what these folks do in these groups is important work. They fill a gap. We can’t be everywhere. And what they’re doing supplements the work that we do. I think they do it very well most of the time. When these groups bring information to us, we fully investigate it, and we\u2019ll proceed with charges if we feel that they are necessary and appropriate.”<\/p>\n

When arrests do happen, 814 posts about it to their 167,000 Facebook followers.<\/p>\n

“I want people to see their faces,” Knepp said. “I want them to see what these individuals have done. We are nonprofit. We run on donations. It\u2019s enough to show our followers and our supporters that we’re doing what we’re saying we’re doing.”<\/p>\n

In a survey we sent to every district attorney’s office in our viewing market, half of the responses said the actions of online groups have jeopardized or compromised investigations before. <\/p>\n

“Sometimes posting these things and putting these things out there can kill an investigation,” Aubele said. “When we’re trying to achieve the goal, it’s not about clicks, it’s not about social media.”<\/p>\n

This content is imported from infogram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.<\/p>\n

Knepp told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News Four that no district attorney’s office has ever told him their efforts have compromised an investigation. <\/p>\n

Police warn of safety risks<\/p>\n

Even though 814 and other civilian groups like to be on the scene for when their targets are met by police, officials said that\u2019s risky. <\/p>\n

“There are too many uncontrolled variables for the safety of the public,” Latrobe Police Chief Richard Bosco said. “You have to be aware of your surroundings. You have to be aware of the individuals that are going to be in those surroundings. The toughest thing for any law enforcement officer to do is to go after a criminal individual in a group environment.”<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association provided the following letter outlining its position when working with civilian groups.<\/p>\n

>> YOU CAN READ THE LETTER BY CLICKING HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n

Both sides want a better path forward<\/p>\n

The district attorneys and the civilians believe legal change could help their relationship.<\/p>\n

“Somebody that’s already a registered sex offender and offends a second time, those penalties are nowhere near as stiff as they should be,” Bible said. “They’re sending nudes and, you know, explicit photos and explicit messages; we should be able to use that.”<\/p>\n

“If there’s such a critical need, please join with us to advocate for more funding,” Ziccarelli said. “I would love to have a dedicated detective in this office to do this kind of work. Go to the legislature, go to our leaders, ask for funding, advocate for funding that is an actionable way to try to make a difference.”<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the two sides will continue to work toward a harmonious process trying to get predators away from kids. <\/p>\n

“Nothing is more of a priority for us than our children and protecting public safety,” Ziccarelli said. “We work with any tip that comes into the office. One group is not different from another.”<\/p>\n

“When these groups bring information to us, we fully investigate it, and we\u2019ll proceed with charges if we feel that they are necessary and appropriate,” Aubele said. “I think that I have proven through the number of reports that we’ve received that we will take these cases seriously, that we will file charges when it’s appropriate, and conversely, that we will decline to file charges if necessary.”<\/p>\n

“You just need to be willing to work with law enforcement. We are,” Knepp said. “Once the DAs and police realize how much we are willing to work with them, they eventually come around to working with us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. \u2014 Years ago, a close friend of Brian Knepp was personally affected by the actions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[131765,3290,24428,454,131771,79772,131767,131772,16393,624,16983,16197,131770,2298,107,9315,297,131769,1856,131768,131774,39081,118492,2008,131766,28,73,75,74,206,131773,14482,4328,5910,99321],"class_list":["post-325193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-814-predhunters","tag-beaver-county","tag-brian-knepp","tag-charge","tag-child-predator-division","tag-child-predators","tag-civilian-groups","tag-civilian-predator-group","tag-communication","tag-district-attorney","tag-district-attorneys","tag-effort","tag-facebook-profiles","tag-fayette-county","tag-group","tag-individual","tag-information","tag-latrobe-police","tag-law-enforcement","tag-mike-aubele","tag-more-funding","tag-nate-bible","tag-nicole-ziccarelli","tag-office","tag-online-stings","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-police","tag-proper-investigation","tag-registered-sex-offender","tag-western-pa","tag-westmoreland-county","tag-ziccarelli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}