Streamlining the onboarding process for law enforcement An infographic detailing the reach that Spotlight has gained, since its national roll-out in February 2015. Similarly, The Tote Project, sells their bags, which helps them pay expenses. Leadership Spotlight: Leading with the Pen - The Handwritten Note. We depend on the anti-trafficking community to keep our resource hub up to date. endobj The insights we gained - was not only beneficial for the overall product development - but for the workshop design itself (I would continue to observe Spotlight usage at future sting operations, including Operation Cross Country, in which hundreds of juveniles were identified and pimps were arrested). <> Our product Safer is the first holistic solution for tech companies to detect, remove, and report child sexual abuse material at scale. I started by conducting a competitive and stakeholder analysis to help with the overall discovery of where we were with our current process. From there the software developed further to better analyze and track data that can lead to building strong cases against traffickers and finding the victims. Problems of scale like this cry out for automated processes, but another big obstacle is the fact that escort ad data is anything but consistent: traffickers use code words, slang, and reused content to complicate detection by machines. We'll keep it out of your inbox, promise. For more information about the impact of Spotlight, check out the infographic below. Kelbi writes, "We are philanthropically funded, which means that donations and grants like yours directly fund our products that we provide to law enforcement for free. Access is available for free to law enforcement agencies and can be requested at: htspotlight.com. Thanks to Spotlight I have returned victims to their families and put bad guys where they belong. A verification email has been sent to you. Learn more about Spotlight. We reached out to her for more information about Spotlight. The app does this on a serverless Amazon Web Services (AWS) architecture that includes Amazon Rekognition, a deep learningbased image and video analysis service, and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) C5 instances. We piloted our workshop at the 2015 Atlanta ICAC Conference and received additional feedback on how to improve Spotlight Lab. Expanded partnerships with law enforcement. <> The organization collaborates with law enforcement agencies, tech companies, and nonprofits. One way for law enforcement agents to catch traffickers and rescue kids would be to identify and investigate escort ads that seem to feature minors, but there are many obstacles to doing this. Spotlight marketing collateral, based on what law enforcement needed to know. Additionally, many new supervisors inevitably will speak with and encourage employees to ensure they take care of their . The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick. Don't recognize this agency? Spotlight, which is offered free of charge to law enforcement and allied organizations, uses Amazon Cognito to provide a secure user directory that can scale to millions of users. Our tools take massive amounts of data and turns it into an asset for law enforcement. At Dressember, we release a line of dresses each year, but those products are sold. Thorn also works to speed the identification of children featured in sexually abusive material. Spotlight is a web-based application that helps law enforcement prioritize leads in their sex trafficking investigations. Thorn was founded in 2012 to build technology to defend children from sexual abuse. The rise of the internet has done for child sexual abusers the exact same thing it has done for everyone else - made it easier to share images, and build a community. To build the world we believe in, we know we must: 1) Accelerate Victim Identification 2) Make Digital Environments Safer and 3) Deter Predatory Behavior. From there, I created an information architecture for the content on the website, put together a website design inspiration board, sketched wireframes by hand and through an online tool - and then wrote the content itself. Founded in 2012, Thorn builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse. Julie holds a B.A. You can have your biggest impact in the community where you live thats where you know the most about the environment, the opportunities, the dangers. This project was supported by Grant No. Our work has three pillars and one guiding vision. To date, Spotlight has helped officers reduce investigative time by up to 65% and has helped identify 18,119 trafficking victims (including 5,791 children) and 6,553 traffickers. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Thorn has created a program called Spotlight. $120 $180 $300 Other Other. Through my competitive analysis, I identified two major competing products, Traffic Jam and Rescue Forensics. Our team continues to monitor new and emerging trends that will help make sure our tool remains relevant for investigators to do their jobs efficiently and ultimately help the kids we serve. stream Leadership Spotlight: Leading Through Tragedy. Eventually, I reached out to them, and we agreed to partner and co-teach a Spotlight Lab workshop at major conferences across the Nation to drive awareness and adoption. Use of THOR is periodically audited for compliance with these Rules. Learn more about Amazon EC2 C5 Instances. Armed with this data, we worked with our technology partners and law enforcement to understand how these existing digital footprints could assist law enforcement in faster victim identification. Numbers are to date since the launch of our tool in 2014. What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, Output - describing our activities and reach. % Hear more from investigators using Spotlight on the front lines. 2016-MU-BX-K005 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Supported browsers are Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. She previously served as the VP of Marketing/Communications of (RED), where she helped establish the brand as one of the most successful cause marketing initiatives in history, delivering more than $160 million to fight HIV/AIDS across Africa. We work with the sharpest minds from tech, non-profit, government and law enforcement to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material, stand up to child traffickers and uncover new kinds of abuse . Hi-fidelity prototypes of key touch points on the Spotlight website. I also conducted guerrilla usability testing to learn about the major pain points of the product itself. Be a part of the impact for our local and global partners by creating your campaign page today! 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 in P2P onthe dark web from a hidden location. 9 0 obj On Wednesday, Kutcher testified before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee along with the CEO and President of the organization Human Rights First, Elisa Massimino, to ask the United States Government for help fighting trafficking and sexual exploitation. about GuideStar Pro. Spotlight's machine-learning models analyze new escort ads in real time and use intelligent image analysis and natural-language processing (NLP) to flag those that match risk profiles developed in cooperation with law enforcement agencies. <>/ExtGState<>/XObject<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> I was given the goal of on-boarding 250 users in the next six months. Earlier in her career she worked for Motorolas mobile phone division and helped launch HELIO, a mobile virtual network operator. With only a 25% average response rate, were confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact. Powered by 3.0 GHz Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Amazon EC2 C5 instances offer a memory-to-vCPU ratio that is ideal for demanding inference applications. This tool will allow us to conduct faster, more precise investigations that will remove criminals from the street and, most importantly, recover victims. To find children faster, they have created two online tools, Spotlight and Solis, for law enforcement agencies across the world, for free. COVID-19 fraud schemes have been a top concern for IRS CI and other . Viral child sexual abuse material is removed from the internet to end the cycle of trauma. You'll challenge yourself, expand your knowledge on modern slavery, and be equipped to lead your community in the fight to end human trafficking. We recently asked human trafficking investigators and prosecutors how Spotlight has impacted their investigations within the last 12 months here are a few highlights: It is the Google Search for combating human sex trafficking. about GuideStar Pro. The exact details of how the software works have been protected by Thorn, in the hearing Kutcher was careful to not go in depth in the interest of making it harder for traffickers to potentially evade the software. Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? We have resource guides for researchers across the globe on all forms of trafficking for various stakeholders. HTS creates a blog, publishes research, and hosts a global resource database on human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? A virtual team based in the U.S., Thorn employs 25 people. Per Kristin, "The genesis of Spotlight started after we conducted a sex trafficking Survivor Survey in 2012, seeking to learn directly from victims how technology was used throughout their trafficking situation. Thorn Helps Law Enforcement Identify Child Sex-Trafficking Victims Faster on AWS. result in increased adoption of Thorns tools, a reduction in time to stop abuse and an increase in risk for perpetrators. Thorn has created a program called Spotlight. Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. The success of Spotlight would not be possible without the countless hours that investigators spend looking for our kids; the technology partners who influenced and encouraged its development and our donors. As Thorn started work on a tool that could help investigators identify children being exploited, more than 150,000 new escort ads were being posted online every day in the United States. The organization's co-leader identifies as: Already have a GuideStar Account? This was meant to identify areas in which we could make the tool more intuitive, to minimize obstacles to adoption. endobj Its not uncommon for celebrities to act on a social or political issue theyre passionate about. "Permitted Use" means any use of the Services by an Authorized User for the benefit of Customer solely for supporting his or her law enforcement, social services, academic or other similar professional role, including to detect criminal actions, identify missing/exploited victims, or measure statistical trends surrounding the adult services . ", In addition to the task of staying technologically relevant, Thorn faces another significant challenge: fundraising. It's a hard question but an important one. Spotlight's sophisticated machine-learning capabilities save time for overworked, under-resourced investigators by automatically flagging ads likely to represent at-risk children and keeping law enforcement agents from getting lost in a sea of online data. With only a 25% response rate, were confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact. $15/mo. Facial analysis in Amazon Rekognition helps investigators find photos of the same person that have been edited to defeat less intelligent image-search engines. While learning the ins and outs of Spotlight, and shipping features from our product backlog, I began to focus on ways to improve our on-boarding process for increased acquisition and adoption. (Don't see an email in your inbox? Spotlight is a web tool used by law enforcement agencies to more efficiently search the internet for victim and trafficker information. Easy communication at scale, disposable "burner" phones, and simple photo-editing tools these are just some of the ways the digital, connected world was helping traffickers operate anonymously, one step ahead of the lawespecially those who traffic children for sex online. Throughout this process, I worked collaboratively with Media Cause and Digital Reasoning to set timelines and execute. My background in law enforcement and anti-human trafficking was well suited for the needs of Spotlight when I first joined the team. Click on the link in that email 7 0 obj Thorn is a registered 501(c)(3) organizationEIN: 27-0943677, 2023 Thorn. We believe that every child has the right to be safe, to be curious, to be happy. To request technical assistance, training, or other resources through this initiative, agency POCs shouldemail usor call 202-833-1460. $25/mo. Spotlight was designed for law enforcement and prosecutors who investigate human trafficking networks so that victims can be identified and connected to services. THOR Usernames and Passwords must be maintained as confidential by the User and may not be shared. You can view our, Meet the 2019 Skoll Awardees for Social Entrepreneurship. We are dedicated to ending child sex trafficking and eliminating child sexual abuse from the internet, and we wont stop until every child can simply be a kid. There are more than 150,000 escort ads posted every day in this country. Spotlight evolved from surveys completed by victims of trafficking that showed 63 percent of underage victims were bought or sold online at some point. Help Spotlight PA hold the powerful to account with a gift today. In the last five years, we have reached more than 2.6 million people globally through our child pornography deterrence program. Over the past year, reports show that we are identifying on average 8 kids per dayand that law enforcement who use Spotlight daily see a 65% time savings in their process. Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2020, 2019 and 2018. endobj The software, called Spotlight, is now used across all 50 states by more than 4,000 law enforcement officers, according to Thorns website. I also created high-fidelity prototypes of key touchpoints on our site, whose content I validated through additional user feedback. She shared, "Maintaining any technology product is always challenging because technology is constantly changing. "Day to day, we strive to balance hard work with care for ourselves and each other so that we have the resiliency we need to keep fighting," Kelbi writes, "At Thorn, we are invested in a team wellness plan where we carve out time to discuss how were feeling and how were approaching our work. Our team built and launched Spotlight in 2014 to improve investigator workflow to find child victims faster. stream BACKGROUND Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this Web site (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided). In addition to a powerful team of experts, we work with the sharpest minds from tech, non-profit, government, and law enforcement to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material, stand up to child traffickers, and uncover new kinds of abuse. Sign In. <>/Metadata 508 0 R/ViewerPreferences 509 0 R>> That's where Thorn comes in. Half of our 26 person staff are engineers and product managers focused on technology innovation and deployment. Get free shipping on all Thorne products, connect with health professionals and clients, and read Take 5 Daily to get the latest news in the health and technology industry. Thorn developed Spotlight, an app that helps law enforcement close trafficking cases much faster than by using traditional manual methods. Spotlight is invaluable as a tool/resource. A 2012 Thorn survey of child sex-trafficking survivors found that 75 percent had been sold online, most of them through escort websites. To design the curriculum for Spotlight Lab, I conducted preliminary research. Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. and who do the programs serve? I joined a superuser with the Louisiana State Police on a human trafficking sting operation in New Orleans, to observe how they used Spotlight in the field. From what I gathered, Spotlight was by far the most intuitive and robust, providing a better user experience, despite having a ways to go itself. Powered by 3.0 GHz Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Amazon EC2 C5 instances offer a memory-to-vCPU ratio that is ideal for demanding inference applications. Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Additionally, through my stakeholder analysis, I focused on Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) - a leading law enforcement education center - and the DOJ (both of whom I know, because I currently consult for them on human trafficking). Sign In. | Photos Copyright Kay Chernush, ArtWorks for Freedom. 2023, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. %PDF-1.7 Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics, Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools, Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations, Revenue and expense data for the current fiscal year, CEO, Board Chair, and Board of Directors information, *with the ability to download the data for 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. All rights reserved. Journey map of users navigating htspotlight.com. In 2012, we learned that 75% of child sex trafficking victims were being bought and sold online. Thorn is a team of issue experts, business leaders, and engineers who build technology to defend children from sexual abuse. "Our law enforcement partners say Spotlight helps officers identify child sex-trafficking ads much faster than the old paper-and-pencil methods," says Brooke Istook, director of strategy and operations at Thorn. On AWS, we can also respond to feature requests from officers in weeks or daysnot a level of responsiveness public-sector agencies are used to seeing. A leading assumption was that users wanted to learn by doing, so we used the outcomes from the New Orleans sting operation as a hands-on case study. "Spotlight was designed based on insights from our first survivor survey. endobj In Wednesdays hearing Kutcher discussed the wide use of the dark web by traffickers, and the difficulties law enforcement officials face in navigating the expanse of content. Officer Wellness Spotlight: Police Chaplains - An Integral Part of Law Enforcement. 11 0 obj I agree to the terms of use, privacy policy and agree to receive promotional emails, reminders and updates from Thorn How can law enforcement sift through massive amounts of data to focus their time on the most vulnerable victims? The internet has become a widely used place for sex traffickers to advertise. GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader Officers can set customized alerts and search Spotlights constantly growing database of ads to aid in their investigations. The solution uses Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) to send alerts to law enforcement agents. Copyright Human Trafficking Search 2023. 1 0 obj GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center. We couldnt recommend it more taking time away from what is hard helps us all sustain our efforts to achieve our goals. to get more GuideStar Nonprofit Profile data today! We work with the sharpest minds from tech, non-profit, government and law enforcement to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material, stand up to child traffickers and uncover new kinds of abuse. Our web-based tool is now used by over 5,000 officers in all 50 states and Canada. We build products and tools, partnerships and communities, that support and accelerate the impact and intentions of many people who are dedicated to defending children from sexual abuse. The genesis of Spotlight started after we conducted a sex trafficking Survivor Survey in 2012, seeking to learn directly from victims how technology was used throughout their trafficking situation. Spotlight takes this massive amount of data and turns it into an asset for law enforcement. The organization collaborates with law enforcement agencies, tech companies, and nonprofits. in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section. country every day, law enforcement cannot manually keep up with the volume of ads as they work to identify and track potential victims. I started by conducting a competitive and stakeholder analysis to help with the overall discovery of where we were with our current process. I get results fast allowing me to to gather important evidence and information in minutes compared to hours. These recent survey results confirm our initial hypothesis that Spotlight has indeed been an asset for law enforcement in earlier victim identification, collaboration and productivity. This is me at a conference booth, preparing to hold several usability testing sessions with human trafficking investigators. Registration is open for Dressember 2018 and fundraising has already started! According to our most recent user survey, Spotlight is helping find more child victims of human trafficking, faster.