GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Kent County prosecutor is calling on a vigilante to stop videotaping his encounters with alleged sexual predators.
“To begin with, what you are doing can be very dangerous,” stated Prosecutor William Forsyth in the Wednesday letter to 23-year-old Zach Sweers.
Sweers is credited with getting the evidence to bring charges against several suspects after he posed as a child online. The suspects then arranged to meet for sex with someone they thought was a child — only to be confronted by Sweers, armed with a camera and videotaping evidence to be used against them.
Forsyth stated Wednesday he would not authorize any more criminal charges based on Sweers’ “YouTube encounters.”
>>PDF: Letter from Prosecutor William Forsyth
“There are several reasons for this decision but they all spring from a concern for your safety and that of the community,” Forsyth stated in the letter.
Forsyth pointed out the extensive steps law enforcement takes before conducting such an operation, including vetting a location, preparing trained back-up officers for any possible complications, and having the ability to run background checks on a suspect to help determine if they have a violent history.
“These are all advantages you lack when you do one of your YouTube encounters. Fortunately no one has gotten physically injured yet, but I fear that your actions could end with a person not choosing to leave, but instead assaulting you, anyone with a video device nearby, and/or some uninvolved passerby,” said Forsyth.
The Kent County prosecutor also said his concerned was heightened by Sweer’s most recent video, which shows his partner openly carrying a firearm during a confrontation with a purported online predator. 
“Without official police involvement, a person going into such an event could easily mistake the situation for a robbery, extortion attempt, or other crime, and respond with a weapon of his own,” Forsyth stated.
The prosecutor said the presence of the weapon could also provide the suspect a defense that they were pressured into making false statements.
“Such actions can also undermine your credibility in any pending cases in which you are witness,” he added.
Sweers was previously asked to stop posting his vigilante videos to YouTube by two Grand Rapids police officers.
“…by adding my voice to the mix, it is my hope that you will stop engaging in ‘freelance’ law enforcement and leave this to professionals who are trained to handle all the potential variables in a way that minimizes the risks to the community,” Forsyth said in closing.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Sweers said he has known the authorities’ opinion on his actions since March. He said he previously suggested that he wouldn’t confront the alleged predators he finds online and that police instead respond to meet with and arrest them, but that police rejected that idea.
He said he doesn’t want to become a police officer but wants to “bust predators since the supply of predators is way too high and the demand to stop them is too low right now.”
“This is what the public wants, this is what the public needs and this is what the public deserves,” he continued. “I’m an adult; I can make my own choices and I understand the risks. Why are some people focusing on me? Why is the safety of children being ignored?”
