”If I bleed on the rug, I’m gonna get SHOT!”
- Excerpt from Del’s “toe on the bannister” excuse.
Del Harvey - Cybersecurity In Today's Climate - -LWTSUMMIT SF 17
Del at a tech convention.
Del Harvey (real name Allison Shea) was a chat decoy for Perverted-Justice and a physical decoy for NBC involved in the To Catch a Predator investigations. A member of the organization, she posed as children both online and in real life. Because of her appearance and her gender neutral voice, she could portray both girls and boys.
When she showed up for the Bethpage, NY sting, NBC made the decision to make her the physical decoy. She continued in this role in various capacities until the Ocean County, NJ sting, where female decoy duties were taken over by Casey Mauro, who worked in that capacity until the end of the series. She was also phased out of her male decoy duties at this time as well.
Trivia/Post-Predator activities[]
- Shea, being an open lesbian, rallies for the empowerment of lesbian and bisexual women in the tech industry.
- Harvey left Perverted Justice shortly after the cancellation of To Catch a Predator. In 2008, Del became a content moderator for Twitter, and by 2014, was vice president of trust and safety. She has direct control over which accounts on the platform are suspended or terminated due to policy violations. This would prove controversial in 2020 when investigation into the suspension of various accounts that were critical of Chris Hansen uncovered communication between him and Harvey just before the blanket suspensions began.[1] Harvey resigned from her position in 2021 and now works in a consultant role.[2]
- Notably, she was the only decoy who wasn't an actor that Dateline hired.
- Perverted Justice was paid over $1.2 million in consultant fees over the course of the series. 82% of the money went to paying the salaries of her, Frag, and Xavier Von Erck.[3]
References[]