
Empowering Investigators to Combat Human Trafficking
Dec 10, 2024
4 min read
by Kim Hernandez, Investigator, West Coast
Over the last decade, my city has experienced financial hardship. My department had to prioritize resources for basic patrol services and reduce the ability to staff specialized assignments like anti-human trafficking. In most cases, cities like mine that face economic struggles are poverty-stricken and have higher crime rates per capita. Without dedicated resources, communities become more vulnerable to organized crime, drug sales, and exploitation, which tends to proliferate in areas where enforcement is stretched thin. Human traffickers exploit these vulnerabilities, using the lack of deterrence and lower likelihood of prosecution to operate more freely.

For many years, I was the only detective actively working on human trafficking cases in my city. I located victims as young as 13 years old who were forced, coerced, and/or manipulated to work as victims of exploitation on the street or in motels. I had to be resourceful and work my investigations as efficiently as possible to be effective. SPOTLIGHT was one of the most important resources in my toolbox, and the fact that donors fund our licenses makes it an even more invaluable resource.
Due to the exploitation and manipulation by traffickers, victims often return to their traffickers after being recovered despite being provided services. On average, victims return to “the life” seven times before leaving. This is especially true for minor victims. SPOTLIGHT allows investigators to locate where victims are posted in online escort advertisements quickly and easily. For example, an old phone number used by a victim will connect with a new phone number based on photographs used in advertisements. This allows investigators to locate and recover victims faster. Investigators can spend their time getting victims to safety and prosecuting their traffickers rather than endlessly searching advertisement sites.
Connecting the Dots: Tracking Victims and Traffickers Across Jurisdictions
Often, investigators locate a single victim during surveillance operations. Using SPOTLIGHT, investigators can locate and identify additional victims who are posted in online advertisements with the victim. It also provides a history and path of travel, allowing investigators to reach out to other jurisdictions to gather crucial evidence against their traffickers.
A Case Study: Using SPOTLIGHT to Dismantle a Multi-Victim Trafficking Operation
SPOTLIGHT is such an important part of everyday investigations that I could provide hundreds of examples of how I have used it to support my investigations. It was most significant in cases involving multiple victims being trafficked to multiple locations. In 2018, I responded to a hospital emergency room for one such investigation. The victim had been kidnapped, threatened, and assaulted by her trafficker. She sustained multiple injuries, including a swollen eye and broken fingers. During her interview, she stated three victims were working for the same trafficker, including a minor. The victim also indicated she had first been trafficked by the suspect when she was only 17. He had taken them to many places to work as prostitutes, including multiple cities and states. The victim had no cell phone and only knew nicknames and descriptions of the other victims. She was recovered and supported by an incredible non-profit organization, and then my work really began.
Through a search on SPOTLIGHT, I found an advertisement that included photographs of the victim. Using the site’s advanced analytics, I located pictures of additional victims and found a trail of places the trafficker had forced them to work. The additional advertisements contained crucial leads I used to identify the additional victims, including the minor. I also used the information from the advertisements to reach out to partner agencies and found additional contacts with law enforcement that placed the trafficker with his victims in other cities and involved in other crimes.
The crime of human trafficking is considered a continuous act and can be prosecuted in any jurisdiction along the path of the crime. Evidence from other jurisdictions is important and can be used to prosecute the suspect in another jurisdiction. In this investigation, I only contacted one victim in my jurisdiction, and I needed to prove the others had also been victims of human trafficking in my jurisdiction and during a specific time period. SPOTLIGHT’s archive of escort advertisements make proving victimization in a certain location faster and more efficient. For this investigation, I found the advertisements I needed to show the crime occurred to all three victims in my jurisdiction.
Bringing Traffickers to Justice
Just as SPOTLIGHT helps locate and identify victims, it also makes locating suspects for arrest and prosecution easier. After I obtained a warrant for the suspect’s arrest, I used the same advanced analytics to locate where the suspect was hiding with additional victims. He was apprehended and placed into custody, preventing him from being violent and trafficking any other victims. During the court case, the victims testified against him and provided painful, devastating stories of abuse. The jury was thoughtful and attentive and, in the end, convicted the suspect on multiple charges, including human trafficking of an adult, assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury, criminal threats, pimping, pandering, and human trafficking of a minor. After hearing all the evidence, the judge described the suspect’s conduct as “beyond the bounds of a decent society” and sentenced the suspect to 73 years in prison.
As an anti-human trafficking investigator, SPOTLIGHT was one the most important tools I used to investigate and prosecute human traffickers. I am grateful I never had to do my job without it.
Learn about the signs of online grooming and how trafficking can begin for a teen. Click here to download our free guide and how you can take next steps to get involved in finding kids faster.