endobj Hopeful that investigators could use technology to identify victims more quickly, we tested an early version of a potential tool among key agencies with promising results. The bad news is that law enforcement just doesnt have the time, energy, or manpower to efficiently pursue the information available online. Spotlight is a web tool used by law enforcement agencies to more efficiently search the internet for victim and trafficker information. endobj Register. Thorn runs the countrys most extensive online deterrence program, communicating directly with people searching for CSAM, disrupting their sense of anonymity and encouraging them to seek help. 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. The organization's co-leader identifies as: Already have a GuideStar Account? % Officers can set customized alerts and search Spotlights constantly growing database of ads to aid in their investigations. Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues. Equipped more than 8,500 law enforcement officers across 2,000 law enforcement agencies in 35 countries with its tools, Tools speed investigation time by up to 65 percent, 2022 Skoll Foundation. 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. Key results from our multi-channel strategy led to 19x the projected customer acquisition goal from all 50 states, by the end of 2015 (easily surpassing the initial goal of 250 users in six months). My background in law enforcement and anti-human trafficking was well suited for the needs of Spotlight when I first joined the team. The Amazon Rekognition team has been very responsive in helping us address any challenges we encounter.". This process was relatively ad hoc, however, with no identified workflow to drive rapid acquisition and adoption. 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 . Thorn Helps Law Enforcement Identify Child Sex-Trafficking Victims Faster on AWS Answering the Challenge Using AWS Throughout this process, I worked collaboratively with Media Cause and Digital Reasoning to set timelines and execute. SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 6/9/2021. I was given the goal of on-boarding 250 users in the next six months. We believe that technology is a tool, one we can use for incredible good. Supported browsers are Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. To find children faster, they have created two online tools, Spotlight and Solis, for law enforcement agencies across the world, for free. <> It's a hard question but an important one. 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. Used by law enforcement in all 50 states and Canada, Spotlight has assisted in over 25,000 cases in 2019 alone and has helped to identify nearly 5,500 child sex trafficking victims and nearly 6,500 child sex traffickers. 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. Help us get you more of the nonprofit information you need, including: An email has been sent to the address you provided. <> <>/ExtGState<>/XObject<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> Activation of the tech industry helps eliminate abuse content from their platforms. Here are samples of the Spotlight product website: home page, request access page, and request demo page. My background in law enforcement and anti-human trafficking was well suited for the needs of Spotlight when I first joined the team. Most locations in the United States are updated every six hours. User research through interviews, personas, and journey mapping of proactive and reactive searches had already been done prior to my start date. $120/yr. I started by conducting a competitive and stakeholder analysis to help with the overall discovery of where we were with our current process. This website is funded through a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Potts adds, "We built Spotlight because we wanted to use advanced technology to help law enforcement turn the tables and find these children faster.". It is the Google Search for combating human sex trafficking. 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. 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. 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. A virtual team based in the U.S., Thorn employs 25 people. "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. Used by officers in all 50 states and Canada, our web-based tool has helped in identifying 17,092 child victims of human trafficking in the past four years. Our web-based tool is now used by over 5,000 officers in all 50 states and Canada. Click on the link in that email At Dressember, we release a line of dresses each year, but those products are sold. 2023, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. One aspect of law enforcement often discussed during an in-briefing or at a recruiting event is the idea that by joining the organization, you are being accepted into that agency's "family.". Top 5 IRS CI Enforcement Priorities. Spotlights analytics pipeline begins with a third-party solution that ingests more than 100,000 new online escort ads each day, storing text and image data as objects in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) buckets. We choose to use it for good. I agree to the terms of use, privacy policy and agree to receive promotional emails, reminders and updates from Thorn Education and engagement with the public change risky and abusive behaviors. THOR Usernames and Passwords must be maintained as confidential by the User and may not be shared. Stay up to date with our daily newsletter, testified before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee, evolved from surveys completed by victims of trafficking, Ashton Kutcher Blew A Kiss To John McCain. Spotlight evolved from surveys completed by victims of . The organization collaborates with law enforcement agencies, tech companies, and nonprofits. I gathered additional information through phone call interviews with customers who were familiar with Spotlight and the other two products to get a sense of what features and design they liked. Spotlight, a tool developed by Thorn, is a web-based platform that assists law enforcement in identifying sex trafficking victims faster. How does this organization measure their results? Numbers are to date since the launch of our tool in 2014. Just within the last 12 months investigators reported: Officers who login weekly report a time savings of 60% in their human trafficking investigations. You can view our, Meet the 2019 Skoll Awardees for Social Entrepreneurship. COVID-19 Fraud. A verification email has been sent to you. HTS creates a blog, publishes research, and hosts a global resource database on human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Additionally, many new supervisors inevitably will speak with and encourage employees to ensure they take care of their . For more information about the impact of Spotlight, check out the infographic below. Learn more Spotlight takes this massive amount of data and turns it into an asset for law enforcement. I was part of the team that was responsible for designing the UX/UI and rolling out the product Nationwide, along with our partners -Digital Reasoning- whose machine learning technology, Spotlight was built on. This tool will allow us to conduct faster, more precise investigations that will remove criminals from the street and, most importantly, recover victims. After the 2015 Atlanta ICAC Conference, we quickly realized that we needed a better on-boarding process that no longer relied solely on Google Sheets to manage requests. Sign in. The software, called Spotlight, is now used across all 50 states by more than 4,000 law enforcement officers, according to Thorns website. 10 0 obj 5 0 obj 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. 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. More From Thorn About the Spotlight Technology. $300/yr. Hear more from investigators using Spotlight on the front lines. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. After the sting operation, we sat down with FVTC and the DOJ to put together the curriculum for Spotlight Lab. 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. There are many things you can do right now to get started in your community to support local survivor organizations.". Spotlight has been used in 21,044 cases identifying 12,328 adults, 5,791 children, and 6,553 traffickers in the past two years. Nothing makes my job more rewarding when a victim says "thank you" and tells me about her rebuilt life. 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. Share it with us and well add it to the database! Thorn has created a program called Spotlight. It went from beta in Summer 2014, to extended beta in Fall 2014, to a national roll-out in Winter 2015. 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. Finally, we were awarded the 2015 Cloudera Social Impact Award, for the work we did on Spotlight. Officer Wellness Spotlight: Police Chaplains - An Integral Part of Law Enforcement. 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. 6 0 obj "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. We hate spam too, unless it's on a sandwich with some eggs. Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Thorn developed Spotlight, an app that helps law enforcement close trafficking cases much faster than by using traditional manual methods. My goal was to not only design a workshop that increased adoption but to build a tool that added value for current users through an intuitive user experience and user interface - which would then translate to more victims identified in a shorter amount of time. Spotlight Data How often is the information in Spotlight refreshed? 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 combination of streamlining workflows and increasing successful victim identification is what has propelled Spotlight to its large user base. Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Copyright 2023 IBTimes LLC. To help investigators overcome these and other hurdles, Thorn collaborated with AWS and Digital Reasoning, a company specializing in cognitive-computing solutions, to build Spotlight. Identifying the best product and UX design to onboard users, so that Spotlight could become the leading machine learning tool for human trafficking investigators. Both products had been around longer than Spotlight and had a few hundred more users than us at the time. Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? 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. There is a small group of people abusing our children, and we are a large community standing in strong opposition. Spotlight marketing collateral, based on what law enforcement needed to know. Initially, they had about 100 users from three U.S. states who were using Spotlight for their human-trafficking investigations. Thanks to Spotlight I have returned victims to their families and put bad guys where they belong. Thorn was founded in 2012 to build technology to defend children from sexual abuse. Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. The organization collaborates with law enforcement agencies, tech companies, and nonprofits. Leadership Spotlight Compassion in Law Enforcement Compassion is characterized by a willingness to purposely assist others on an emotional level and to selflessly put the needs of others before. We depend on the anti-trafficking community to keep our resource hub up to date. All rights reserved. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. Forgot your username or password? | Photos Copyright Kay Chernush, ArtWorks for Freedom. Kutcher elaborate on the software during the hearing, Its a tool that can be used by law enforcement to prioritize their caseload. Dont see a resource that you know exists? Learn more about Spotlight. So when I came on, I got caught up to speed by reviewing that material, along with learning the product inside out by receiving, and then conducting, Spotlight demos and online trainings. 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