These two men have caught child predators online. One did it far from YouTube’s spotlight.

Officer David Invernizzi: “I knew there were some sick people in the world. But I did not know the extent it went to.”

DELRAY BEACH — While scouring internet chatrooms for child predators, Miami-Dade police officer David Invernizzi learned a few things quickly.

Predators get suspicious if you chat during school hours, he said. They gravitate toward cutesy usernames. There are far more of them than police have nets to snare.

But the thing Invernizzi said surprised him most was the zeal with which men and the occasional woman — young and old, single and married, employed and jobless — pursued what they believed was a child.

“I worked sexual battery cases before this, so I knew there were some sick people in the world,” said Invernizzi, now 52 and retired from the police force. “But I did not know the extent it went to.”‘Playground’ for pedophiles: FBI’s most wanted child-porn offender ‘in the entire world’ convicted in South Florida

In 2008, Invernizzi’s two-person unit was one of a handful across the country conducting undercover investigations into internet crimes against children. Led by a woman who anticipated the rise of online child abuse long before her superiors did, it helped lay the groundwork for a kind of investigation that has since been adopted nationwide.

The slang has changed and it’s easier for predators to mask their identities and IP addresses, Invernizzi said. But the fundamentals remain the same: Pretend to be a child. Catch the eye of a leering adult. Wait for the conversation to turn sexual, then arrange a meeting.

The predators arrived expecting a little boy or girl, Invernizzi said. What they found was seven men in tactical vests and camouflage, ready to take them down.

The modern sting: Catching predators in the digital age

Dustin Lampros is one of a growing number of people nationwide who’ve embraced the formula and morphed it to their own tools, despite concerns that they risk doing more harm than good. Instead of AOL chatrooms and dial-up modems, his team of amateur predator catchers uses dating apps and iPhones to ensnare suspected abusers in South Florida.

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He confronts them with the camera rolling in public spaces across Delray Beach, where he lives. They may feign confusion, but the terror on their faces betrays that they know exactly what is about to happen.More: MMA fighter targets child predators with police officers in tow. Does this cross a line?

Where Invernizzi’s takedowns were swift and procedural, Lampros’ are tailor-made for an online audience. He uses the minutes before police arrive to goad his catches into calling their spouses and confessing on camera.

He makes them do pushups and jumping jacks. Often, he coaxes out confessions with the promise that he won’t call the police.

They’re already on the way.

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Lampros said he isn’t motivated by the fame or money generated by his videos. His mother was the victim of a predator when she was 13, he said, and his childhood best friend was raped by a school administrator.

“This stuff just pisses me off,” Lampros said. “I saw what it did to my best friend. I heard the stories from my mom. I was like, ‘Yo, if I’m in a position to stop this, why not do it?’ “

Law-enforcement officials nationwide, including Invernizzi, have volunteered a few reasons. The primary among them is safety.

Confrontations between undercover officers and suspects are inherently dangerous, said Broward County Sgt. Thomas McInerney. A man in Sunrise killed two FBI agents after they arrived to seize his computers during a child-pornography raid in 2021. The man then killed himself.

In 2004, a Fort Lauderdale man killed a Broward sheriff’s deputy who was also serving a search warrant in a child-porn raid. Two decades later, Seattle Police shot and killed an armed man who believed he was meeting two girls ages 7 and 11 at a DoubleTree hotel.

“We never want to encourage any civilian from contacting these individuals on their own, especially in public places where other civilians can be injured or hurt,” McInerney said.’How can God save you now?’ Teen victim confronts sex abuser in court before he goes to prison

McInerney, who has served as the commander of the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force since 2017, said people who want to get involved safely should refrain from taking justice into their own hands. Submit tips to law enforcement instead, he said, and let the professionals do their jobs.

“Public shaming is fine,” he added, “but unfortunately it doesn’t stop these people. That goes away pretty quickly, and they’re back at it. We want true justice, which is a successful prosecution.”

To report an incident of online exploitation, contact the confidential tip line at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) , or use the online reporting formhttps://southfloridaicac.org/report-a-tip/.

Hannah Phillips covers criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.