LIVONIA, Mich. – Several women have come forward to share concerns about a social media content creator filming them without their consent. But officials said he’s not breaking the law.
Livonia police investigated complaints tied to the social media videos.
A woman, who chose to remain anonymous, said she was followed by a man at a Target in Livonia. She told Local 4 that the man tried to hit on her and made her “extremely uncomfortable.”
She then learned that her awkward conversation with the man was posted on his social media page without her knowledge, recorded with his Meta glasses.
“I noticed he wasn’t pushing a cart, he didn’t have a basket, he had nothing in his hands. He was clearly there for that reason, which makes it even more uncomfortable,” she said.
She is not the only woman the man has encountered and recorded.
Concerns erupted when residents posted on a Livonia community Facebook page about a man recording women and children in Metro Detroit stores without their knowledge while talking to them.
Two women, who chose to remain anonymous, spoke to Local 4 about their encounter with the man.
The two people who filed an incident complaint to police on Dec. 15 are part of a Livonia community Facebook page.
They were concerned about a man who went by Tom Rizz online, who recorded women and children with his Meta glasses and posted the recordings on his social media.
His TikTok page has over 52,000 followers with 1.3 million likes.
They said women were posting on the Livonia Facebook group about the man, saying they were uncomfortable and asking whether other women had encountered him.
They said women who encountered the man had to be escorted to their cars because of how uncomfortable they felt.
They said the man was in the Livonia Facebook group and argued with people in the comments, leading to him doxxing some women who disagreed with his content.
He’s been removed from the group. However, he posted the personal information of two of the group members on his TikTok account, including their addresses and workplaces, and criticized one of the women’s appearances.
The two women reported him to the police, but officers told them there wasn’t much they could do.
“He seems to think he’s untouchable,” one of the women said in an interview.
“He should have some compassion for people,” she said. “You really want to spread joy? Do something positive.”
“It’s such an invasion of privacy,” the other woman said.
Another woman who appears in one of the videos told Local 4 anonymously that she “did not consent to being deceived, recorded, or used as material for online ridicule.”
“Discovering that this interaction was intentionally staged and publicly disseminated without my knowledge or consent left me feeling angry, violated, humiliated, and shaken,” she said. “This behavior reflects a well-documented pattern involving multiple women, courtesy largely of his own postings. It is not an isolated incident, and it is not harmless. I am speaking out to demand accountability and to stand in solidarity with the other women who have been targeted. Silence enables this behavior; speaking out is how we stop it.”
His side of the story
Local 4’s Erika Erickson went to “Tom Rizz’s” house in Livonia and spoke to him to hear his side of the story.
Tom Rizz, whose real name is Charles TenBroeck, said, “I think I’m doing a lot of good, but I can understand why some people would not like it.”
TenBroeck claims he is a dating coach who encourages men to walk up to women in public. He believes his content helps men gain more confidence in approaching women.
One of the questions he was asked was why he recorded children in a store and posted his interaction on TikTok. He said, “They are in public. They were disrespectful, they were rude. As an adult, we correct that behavior.”
“If I see behavior I don’t like, as an adult, I correct it,” he continued.
“It’s my First Amendment right, I know the law,” he stated. “I don’t know how I’m hurting anybody. I would love to hear that perspective.”
Continuing to defend his content, he said that he “can follow anyone I want in that store.”
“I’m allowed to film people,” he stated. “I can go anywhere I want; it’s one-party consent.”
He was also asked why he doxxed the women in the Facebook group, he replied, “Mine was out first.”
He was also told that the women he doxxed felt threatened and unsafe that their personal information went public. He responded, “Why would they be scared?”
Man admits to disabling light on Meta glasses
Local 4’s Erika Erickson confronted TenBroeck about his Meta glasses not having a light when recording, since one woman reported his Meta glasses were recording without the light on.
“No, I haven’t tampered with them,” he initially stated.
After further discussion, he was asked if he was lying.
“I’ll come clean, I did disable the light,” he admitted.
When he was asked why, he responded, “Because I wanted to. It makes it more authentic.”
“I’m sorry I lied to you, Erika,” he said. That wasn’t cool.”
TenBroeck later said via email that he " is always looking at [his] content and making decisions on what to take down and post.
“I did blur out folks on a video recently out of respect to a perceived minor,” TenBroeck said. “I took down the video of the kids on scooters after more research.”
Local 4 reached out to Meta regarding the situation, and a spokesperson provided the following statement:
“People are responsible for following the law, whether or not they’re wearing Ray-Ban Metas. Unlike smartphones, our glasses have an LED light that activates whenever someone captures content, so it’s clear the device is recording. The content and associated accounts have been removed for multiple policy violations.”
Meta spokesperson
‘Did not meet elements of a crime’
According to the police report the women filed, and Local 4 obtained via FOIA, officers told the women who were being harassed that the man was not technically committing a crime.
An officer reviewed TenBroeck‘s content on social media and found that his videos “did not meet elements of a crime.” Another officer also said they did not find anything criminal in the social media videos, and stated, “citizens are frequently laughing in the videos.”
Police said the case has been closed, but “would remain on file if ever needed for future incidents and documentation.”
Is this legal?
From a legal standpoint, Todd Flood, Managing Partner of Flood Law, told Local 4 the line between what’s legal and what crosses into criminal behavior depends heavily on location, intent, and conduct. Flood stressed that simply recording or photographing someone in public and posting it online without their consent is not illegal.
“If someone’s recording somebody in a public place, there’s no expectation of privacy in that public place, so it’s not a crime, necessarily,” Flood said. “There are crimes when you’re stalking somebody or you’re harassing somebody and you continue to do it, or they tell you to stop and you continue to do it.”
Repeated violations can escalate into more serious charges, Flood said, particularly when minors are involved. He also said conduct that is clearly criminal would include filming intimate areas without consent, undergarments or filming in changing rooms or bathrooms, etc.
Flood said posting or distributing images can also trigger civil liability.
“If he’s doing it to make money, or if he’s doing it for advertising, then there can be injunctions put up,” Flood said. “Because he’s now using your likeness, your personality… to make cash. So, if he gets any kind of money or remuneration for this, that’s a problem.”
“There’s some sort of perversion here of some sort of a guy that goes out and turns off his glasses – a recording device,” Flood said. “If you can, get away, tell the person to stop, notify the police, if he’s following you, immediately. Go to the store manager, because you could get a nuisance case against this guy, and they could file a trespass [report].”
Despite the statements in one Livonia incident report that state no crime has occurred, Local 4 is told Monday that Livonia Police are continuing to investigate. If there is any unwarranted contact and/or any potential victims out there, please call 734-466-2470. People can come to the Livonia Police Department and file a report or police can send a squad car out to their residence.