“It is the greatest tool we have in the fight against human trafficking.”
Spotlight helps find kids faster.
— Special Agent, Wisconsin Human Trafficking Task Force
latest impact
According to our most recent user survey, Spotlight is helping find more child victims of human trafficking, faster. Used by officers in all 50 states and Canada, our web-based tool has helped in identifying 14,874 child victims of human trafficking and 16,927 traffickers in the past four years. With only a 25% average response rate, we’re confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact.
Reports from our users show that, with the help of Spotlight, law enforcement is identifying 10 kids per day on average and those who use Spotlight daily see over 60% in time savings. This combination of streamlining workflows and increasing successful victim identification is what has propelled Spotlight to continue to grow its user base.
Empowering law enforcement to collaborate beyond jurisdictions or national borders is a key to success in identifying victims who are moved frequently, or are broadcast through peer-to-peer platforms (P2P) on the dark web from a hidden location. Hear more from investigators using Spotlight on the front lines.
*All data from 2016-19 Spotlight user surveys covering the previous 12 months.
10
average kids reached daily
16,927
traffickers identified
14,874
children identified
the challenge
The internet has made it easier for children to be bought and sold online. There are more than 150,000 escort ads posted every day in this country. Somewhere in that pile of data are children who are bought and sold online for sex. When we surveyed underage sex trafficking victims, 3 out of 4 who entered the life in the past decade said they had been advertised online at some point in their trafficking situation. How can law enforcement sift through massive amounts of data to focus their time on the most vulnerable victims?
Our Approach
Law enforcement doesn’t have enough time to navigate the online commercial sex market to find children and identify their traffickers. Spotlight takes this massive amount of data and turns it into an asset for law enforcement. The objective of Spotlight is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of domestic sex trafficking investigations and increase the number of women and children who are identified and connected with help resources. Learn more about Spotlight.
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