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A twenty-year-old male college student in California, United States went undercover and posed as a 16-year-old girl on a dating app, which led to the arrest of a police officer.
The student, identified only as Ethan, used Snapchat’s gender-switch filter to pose as a 16-year-old girl named “Esther” on the dating app Tinder, as per CBS Bay Area on June 11. Ethan was inspired to make the undercover Tinder account to catch possible pedophiles after learning that a female friend of his was molested as a child.
He then received a message from Robert Davies, who happened to be a San Mateo police officer.
“I believe he messaged me, ‘Are you down to have some fun tonight?’ and I decided to take advantage of it,” Ethan said in the report.
Ethan and Davies brought their conversation to a different messaging app. There, he told the police officer he was 16 years old and asked if it bothered him. As per Ethan, their messages got a lot more explicit.
The two exchanged messages for more than 12 hours. Little did Davies know that Ethan had taken screenshots of their messages and sent them to Crime Stoppers.
“I was just looking to get someone,” said Ethan. “He just happened to be a cop.”
Davies was arrested early this June “on suspicion of discussing sexual activity with a minor on social media.” He currently faces a charge of contacting a minor to commit a felony, as per the report.
Davies was placed on paid administration leave following the incident, as per the San Mateo Police Department. The department’s police chief Susan Manheimer also gave a statement regarding Davies’ arrest, calling his alleged conduct, if proven true, an affront to their profession as police officers.
“As San Mateo police officers, we have sworn an oath to serve and protect our communities,” Manheimer said in the report. “I can assure you that we remain steadfast to this commitment to serving our community with ‘Professionalism, Integrity, and Excellence.’” Cody Cepeda/JB
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