Commissioner's warning to paedophile-hunting vigilantes

West Mercia police and crime commissioner John Campion said while citizen groups may have the best of intentions, vigilantes can do more harm than good by damaging on-going investigations and can put themselves – or even the children they are trying to protect – at risk.

His comments come after the former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency, Jim Gamble, described incidents of online child sexual abuse as a "tsunami" which he said was "almost overwhelming" for his former colleagues, and suggested volunteers be recruited in a "special digital detectives programme."

Unregulated groups of adults who pose online as underage children to catch paedophiles already exist but police have raised concerns with some of the tactics used by such groups, including posting videos of the stings online.

The Home Office has declined to comment on Mr Gamble's suggestion, but warned against citizens acting as amateur detectives, saying: "The issues of child protection understandably matters greatly to people, but they should allow the police and law enforcement agencies to do their vital work by not taking the law into their own hands."

Mr Campion echoed those sentiments.

He said: “West Mercia Police do not condone vigilantism and I agree with this approach.

"We have a dedicated and professional workforce, who are properly authorised, governed and scrutinised. I am reassured that they have the skills and resources to carry out investigations in the most appropriate way in order to keep our communities safe.

"Vigilantes can put themselves and those they wish to protect, at risk of harm, and could also potentially damage investigations and the course of justice.

"Whilst I understand and appreciate that the public want to do all they can to protect others, there are many other ways that they can play an active role in citizenship through properly regulated volunteering opportunities within the police force.”

He said West Mercia Police's position was that protecting children was a complex issue and should be left to the police and other law enforcement agencies.

Those vigilantes target could destroy evidence before police have a chance to take action and vigilantes could very easily jeopardise ongoing police investigations into individual offenders or paedophile networks that they are unaware of.

They could also actually end up putting children at risk of harm, for example by an abuser who feels targeted or threatened, without enabling the police or other agencies to put measures in place to protect abused children as they would do in their own investigations.

He said anyone who is suffering abuse or who is concerned about someone who may be should contact police, their local authority children’s services team, or a confidential national support agency such as Childline on 0800 1111 or www.childline.org.uk, NSPCC on 0808 800 5000 or www.nspcc.org.uk or Victim Support on 0845 30 30 900 or www.victimsupport.org.uk.