Colorado Ped Patrol: Heroes or vigilantes?

Tommy Fellows, a self-proclaimed online child predator catcher who operates Colorado Ped Patrol, approached Clovis resident Timothy Conrad Harper at Harper’s Fourth Street home on Aug. 17.

Over the past couple of weeks, Fellows said Harper had been led to believe he was conversing with Molly – a 13-year-old girl – and expressed interest in taking her virginity. Court records show he intended to meet with her last weekend.

Harper knows now that Molly never existed. Someone else was online posing as a child.

Court records show Harper backed out after planning to meet. Nonetheless, Fellows, who made the trek from Denver, still showed up at Harper’s home and live streamed their confrontation.

On the live stream, Harper, who’d previously served five years in prison for sexually molesting a child in Montana, allegedly confessed to the most recent illicit online encounter.

Soon after Fellows confronted Harper, Clovis police became involved and Harper was arrested and jailed.

While speaking with Harper, Fellows told him that of his 427 cases, “This is the most vile s**t I’ve ever seen.”

Police said they found hundreds of pictures of child pornography on Harper’s phone. Harper is also accused of having sex with his dog, allegedly captured on video. He’s charged with sexual exploitation of children, extreme cruelty to animals and failing to register as a sex offender. He remained in the Curry County Detention Center on Friday on $3,000 cash bond.

Proponents consider Fellows a hero and a good citizen preventing atrocious acts against children before they can happen. Opponents wonder if his efforts are similar to entrapment, if he’s feigning altruism to rake in a profit, and whether those he seeks to “catch” would not be looking to assault children if the opportunity were not presented.

Society cleansers or profit seekers?

Claudia Rocha, an assistant professor of criminology at Eastern New Mexico University, said the financial aspect of the Colorado Ped Patrol’s work creates an ethical dilemma. 

“You see it all the time where individuals will do just about anything to increase their popularity, get their name out there so, in part, yes, it could be going to great lengths just because their focus is centered on their popularity,” Rocha said. 

Fellows, for example, has some of his videos behind paywalls. He pivoted from his window-washing business to do this full-time a few years ago and said this is now his main source of revenue.

“He (Fellows) goes online every day begging for money, pretending to be a big superhero predator catcher,” James Thompson, one of Fellow’s biggest critics, told Denver’s KDVR-TV in January.

In response to whether his work is about financial gain, Fellows said he uses the paywalls and other revenue to fund the catches and help pay members of Colorado Ped Patrol. Without money through page views and donations, he couldn’t do the work. 

Fellows said he makes $40,000 with no 401K, sick pay or other benefits. Many members of Colorado Ped Patrol are unpaid.

“For a long time, I made a lot more money than I make now,” Fellows said.

He said the reason for traveling from Denver for the Clovis catch wasn’t about going to great lengths for viewership. Despite the YouTube video of the clip garnering 90,000 views – as of Friday morning – Fellows said they made a profit of “maybe 200 bucks.” 

Fellows and other Colorado Ped Patrol members said their motivation for the work is to prevent an evil that negatively impacted their lives.

“I want to catch people out there that are doing the exact same thing that they did to my son,” Fellows said.

“Ninety-nine percent of the team is survivors of some kind. And we’re exposing monsters to the community that might be your neighbor,” he added. 

Hero or vigilantes? 

Critics of Fellows, and other potential child predator catchers, say that they’re vigilantes, who exist in a gray – if not illegal – part of the law. 

“You will have individuals, critics in particular, that will raise those arguments that this is akin to entrapment; this is an invasion of an individual’s privacy, because you’re essentially setting them up,” Rocha said. 

“Those critics will further their argument by saying, ‘Well, the individual may not have committed that offense had the opportunity not been presented to them.’”

Fellows said he sees the conversations with decoys as exposing – not encouraging – bad behavior. From his perspective, you either want to participate in the criminal activity or you don’t. And if you don’t, either ignore the chat or block them, which he said occurs “most of the time.”

He said it’s not “entrapment” because that could only be done by a member of law enforcement. Furthermore, he said the decoy may follow someone first, but the predator ultimately messages them and talks sexually and asks if they’d like to meet for sex. Decoys never provoke anything and they let the predator know they’re children within the first few messages, he said. 

In Harper’s case, a decoy from Women Against Predators found him on Facebook by seeing communities he was involved in and then followed him. Not long after, Harper sent her sexually explicit messages, an unsolicited picture of his genitalia and a video of him partaking in a sexual activity with his dog, Fellows said.

He said he’s aware of the pushback, but said uplifting comments and messages reminds him to not stop.

“The CPP team is freaking amazing! And everyone who did what they did. I love the videos and the people who are in it truly for the kids! Much love y’all great catch!” read one comment on an Instagram post exposing Harper. 

Despite the positive reactions from followers, Rocha feels Fellows should work with law enforcement to carry this out in a safe, legal way. 

She’s not alone. 

Back in May, Albuquerque Police Department Commander Kyle Hartstock told KOAT-TV in Albuquerque:

“Only law enforcement is allowed to pretend to be a minor, for the purposes of seeing if somebody wants to have a sexual conversation or show up for a sexual meet with a child and can be charged in court.”

In response, Fellows said he only utilizes law enforcement “post-catch” because cases often get backlogged and justice is never brought. He’s found that police departments don’t have the resources, time and staffing necessary to give these cases the attention they need. 

Asked if he encourages or discourages people from doing what Fellows does, Clovis Police Department Capt. Robert Telles said: “I think if people are aware of criminal activity, they should be reporting it to the police.”

Eastern New Mexico law officers in the past have set up sting operations similar to what Colorado Ped Patrol is doing. But Telles said cases like Harper’s don’t happen very often and local law agencies don’t have the resources to do that kind of work effectively.

Though he’s been criticized by some law enforcement, Fellows said others are typically positive in their responses. He said their reaction is a byproduct of him being thorough, open and laying out the entire case in a binder.

Tactics too much?

Over the course of his 428 “catches,” Fellows said multiple predators have killed themselves. He said it’s “sad” and expressed empathy for their family members, but said it’s never motivated him to stop his cause.

Rocha, the ENMU professor, said this aspect of Fellows’ work “takes us right back to … how ethical is this behavior?

“When you look at ethics, the whole purpose behind it is to protect the individual as well as whomever they are interacting with, whether that’s an individual or an agency,” said Rocha, who pointed out that her statement isn’t a reflection of protecting child predators.

But from Fellows’ perspective, “Pulling the cord because somebody killed himself is just allowing these other guys to continue.”