Man at Kettering park alarms football parents

Officers responded to Indian Riffle Park after receiving a report that a man, not known to parents, was photographing young children during a youth football practice Thursday night.

Officers responded to Indian Riffle Park after receiving a report that a man, not known to parents, was photographing young children during a youth football practice Thursday night.

A man photographing young children during a youth football practice Thursday night alarmed parents at Indian Riffle Park.

Kettering police reponded to the park around 8:30 p.m. Parents said the man appeared to be photographing or holding a camera phone in the direction of some girls, but when parents confronted him and inspected his phone there were no photos of the children, Kettering police officer John Jung said.

The man left, but parents wrote down his license plate and police were able to interview him. The man told police he didn’t have any family at the practice and didn’t know any of the children who were at the practice, Jung said.

While Jung said the man was asked to leave the property, he said nothing criminal occurred, so the man is not facing any charges.

“You are allowed to photograph in the parks,” Jung said. “It becomes a fine line of what becomes appropriate or not and as a parent with young kids as if somebody was photographing in the direction of my kids and it didn’t seem as if it was something legit, I would question it as well.”

The case has been forwarded to detectives to conduct a further investigation, Jung said.