How do Chris Hansen's Takedown sting operations work with police?

Chris Hansen said police detectives run the online chats, posing as children aged 12 to 15 or, increasingly, as a parent offering a child. Depending on the jurisdiction, the meeting happens at a hotel, a store or a house fitted with remote hidden cameras, where a young-looking deputy may greet the man at the door. Hansen then walks in to interview him, or police arrest him first and Hansen interviews him afterwards, which is the rule whenever officers suspect he is armed. A new Takedown episode drops every Thursday on True Blue.

• Hansen says he works with about a dozen law enforcement agencies and is a year ahead in production.
• Hansen says men have brought guns, including a loaded .38 found in a backpack in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, though none has drawn on him.
• Hansen says the first two Dateline stings in 2004 ran without police, using only an NBC security guard.
• Hansen says his Takedown stings have an above 99 percent successful prosecution rate.

▸In their words

“And the key to this is not to be nervous about dead air.” Chris Hansen · at 2:10:57 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Shawn Ryan Show (2026-10-26). Read the whole episode summary →

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