How Sanpchat’s gender swap filter helped expose a pedophile cop

Authorities nabbed a California police officer revealed to be a pedophile. The cop was caught after explicitly messaging who he thought was a 16-year-old girl on Tinder.

The sexual predator was caught thanks to a filter on Snapchat that shows users what they’d look like if they were the opposite gender.

A male college student from California posed as an underage girl using the said gender-swapping filter. In an interview with NBC Bay Area last Tuesday, he revealed that his aim was to expose sexual predators lurking online. And he did so in the popular dating app Tinder. The student who only wished to be identified by the name ‘Ethan’, said his mission was inspired by a friend who experienced molestation as a child. This is according to NBC news.

Ethan was able to catfish a 40-year-old caucasian male named Robert Edward Davies. Davies turned out to be a police officer from California’s San Mateo Police Department. The cop exchanged explicit messages with Ethan’s fraud female alter-ego, ‘Esther’.

‘Esther’ reportedly told the police officer that she was 16 years old but Davies continued to message the alter-ego. During the conversation, ‘Esther’ suggested engaging in sexual activity with Davies. Their conversation was documented through screenshots.

After Ethan submitted screenshots of their online conversation to investigators, Davies was arrested.

Davies is currently under custody for suspicion of contacting a minor to commit a felony according to the San Jose Police Department. He is being held at a $50,000 bond after a three-week investigation.

Christian Woods
Christian Woods
Christian is a morning reporter and technology columnist for Best in Australia. Christian has worked in the media since 2000, in a range of locations. He joined Best in Australia in 2018, and began working in Melbourne in 2019.
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