Norwalk police officer featured in new docuseries 'Undercover Underage'
"Undercover Underage" follows Connecticut's Roo Powell and her nonprofit "Safe from Online Sex Abuse" as they identify and gather evidence. Norwalk Investigator Mark Suda is a consultant on the show, working with Powell and her team about the legal ramifications of their efforts.
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Nov 1, 2021, 9:55 PM
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Updated 1,150 days ago
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Norwalk police officer is being featured on a new Discovery+ docuseries that
tracks down dangerous internet predators.
"Undercover
Underage" follows Connecticut's Roo Powell and her nonprofit "Safe
from Online Sex Abuse" as they identify and gather evidence. Norwalk
Investigator Mark Suda is a consultant on the show, working with Powell and her
team about the legal ramifications of their efforts.
Suda
says he was on the fence about doing the show -- until he met Powell.
“Her
passion and her drive to do this type of work is second to none,” he said.
Powell
is a 38-year-old mother of three who plays the role of different
15-year-old girls, each a carefully crafted decoy persona.
“When
we create a persona, it's like we're creating a person out of thin air,” she
said on an upcoming episode. “The hair color and eye color really look
different. And we have spent time building what a teenager's life might be. So,
they have family and friends and hobbies."
The
show is an exposé on the dangers underage teens encounter online. Suda
says every “mom and dad in America should watch this show.”
“It
definitely opened up my eyes,” he said. “I've been in law enforcement for 28
years. I thought I'd seen it all, done it all and what I've seen in this
10-week shoot just blew my mind. It's absolutely unbelievable.”
The
show doesn't out any of the men who contact Powell's underage characters,
instead it blurs out their faces and distorts their voices. Evidence
from the team's work was turned over to law enforcement in several states, but
Suda can't say how many arrests came from it.
"Undercover
Underage" debuts on Discovery+ on Tuesday. It's a six-part series with a
new episode each week.
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