Ex-police chief urges Home Office to make cops officially team up with ‘paedophile vigilantes’
It comes after several groups of self-styled detectives popped up across Britain with a joint mission to snare and expose paedophiles
A FORMER police chief has urged the government to fund training for vigilante 'paedophile hunters' - in a bid to create a 'Citizens' Army' of detectives.
Jim Gamble QPM, the Association of Chief Police Officers' former lead on Child Protection and Child Trafficking, said the vigilantes should be vetted.
It comes after several groups of self-styled detectives popped up across Britain with a joint mission to snare and expose paedophiles.
The 'investigators' set up decoy profiles online posing as underage boys and girls and wait for predators to contact them.
When the suspect arranges to meet with the would-be victim - often for sex - they are instead greeted by the vigilantes who film the sting and post it online.
Internet Interceptors - an all-female group of paedophile-hunting mums - was set up by a woman calling herself 'Julie' - to plug a gap left by law enforcement.
She said: "I don't think that the police are doing enough.
"It will carry on happening. It is going to get worse so we will never stop doing what we're doing."
Despite their work resulting in four convictions to date, the Home Office has urged Internet Interceptors and other groups not to "take the law into their own hands".
But the vigilantes claim they do what they do because the cops won't - or don't.
Jim Gamble has called for members of such groups to be vetted and given advice by officers so they can help - not hinder - ongoing police investigations.
Mr Gamble, who was Chief Executive of the government's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre until 2010, said: "I understand exactly whey they are doing it.
"I agree with them. There are too few police to engage with them effectively."
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He said we are losing 22,000 police officers but child sexual abuse online is up by 80 per cent, remarking: "The numbers don't add up."
Mr Gamble, who was also safeguarding chair for City of London, continued: "Everybody understands why they are doing what they are doing and the frustration.
"The government needs to pay for it. You don't need to be a long-serving officer to do what they are doing."
He added: "There is no way that the police resource matches the need or demand.
"I work with police officers every day and I don't hear them saying, 'We have got enough.'
"The Home Office is so busy looking backwards that they can't actually look forwards."
Mr Gamble suggested that the government fund the creation of a 'Citizens' Army' of amateur detectives, who would be given the same training as Special Constables.
He said: "Journalists, social workers, teachers, the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker - whoever felt strongly could come forward.
"Rather than sitting in their house at night on their family computer, they could go to the police station to a room with special equipment and wait to be approached.
"It would professionalise and make safer the process."
The women who run Internet Interceptors said they will carry on doing snaring and exposing paedophiles for as long as it takes.
'Julie' started the group in 2015 and was joined a few months ago by another woman, 'Paula', who got in touch because her daughter was being groomed online.
The 'investigators' tracked down the guilty party and confronted him.
Similar stings have resulted in four convictions to date and 27 other suspects remain on bail pending further investigation.
'Paula', dressed in a black hoodie, said: "Several times we have handed over the information to the police and in all fairness there is no follow up.
"The easiest way for us to do it and get these people flagged up to the authorities is for us to go and meet them.
"We instantly call the police so we know the police are on the way."
When asked what it's like talking to paedophiles on the net, 'Julie' added: "It is really distressing as an adult.
"I can't imagine how a child would feel being in the same situation."
The Home Office said child sexual exploitation is a "heinous crime" and that it is "constantly developing approaches" to tackle offenders and prevent abuse.
A spokesman said: "The National Crime Agency (NCA) received additional funding in 2015-16 for further specialist teams to tackle online CSE.
"This enabled a near doubling of their investigative capability and has led to more children being safeguarded from sexual exploitation.
"Whilst we completely understand that the issue of child protection matters greatly to people, we urge them to allow the police and law enforcement agencies to do their vital work by not taking the law into their own hands."