The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick. Share it with us and well add it to the database! Leadership Spotlight: A System Focus. Based on IRS CI's FY 2021 Annual Report, here are five top enforcement priorities that are likely to carry over into 2022: 1. We couldnt recommend it more taking time away from what is hard helps us all sustain our efforts to achieve our goals. With over 150,000 ads posted online every day, we know that law enforcement doesnt have enough time to navigate the online commercial sex market to find children and identify their traffickers. Spotlight marketing collateral, based on what law enforcement needed to know. We believe that every child has the right to be safe, to be curious, to be happy. Thorn has created a program called Spotlight. 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. Our tool Spotlight accelerates law enforcements ability to identify victims of child sex trafficking. Spotlight Data How often is the information in Spotlight refreshed? Rather, I will be detailing the UX/UI and program management that went behind the design of the on-boarding process, which I led during my time at Thorn. The organization's co-leader identifies as: Already have a GuideStar Account? Spotlight evolved from surveys completed by victims of trafficking that showed 63 percent of underage victims were bought or sold online at some point. Thorn's Spotlight tool helps law enforcement more quickly identify sex trafficking victims who are advertised online. Initially, they had about 100 users from three U.S. states who were using Spotlight for their human-trafficking investigations. $10/mo. 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. 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. Be a part of the impact for our local and global partners by creating your campaign page today! ", Spotlight was made to combat a difficult problem, and the data Spotlight handles is unsettling to say the least. $15/mo. With only a 25% average response rate, were confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact. Earlier in her career she worked for Motorolas mobile phone division and helped launch HELIO, a mobile virtual network operator. about GuideStar Pro. Dont see a resource that you know exists? Research programs to better understand the role of technology in child sex trafficking. 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. For this phase of the project, I used the data I already gathered from Spotlight users to create a journey for those seeking to learn more about Spotlight, request a demo, request access, and to log in. We do all of this so every child can be safe, curious, and happy. We hate spam too, unless it's on a sandwich with some eggs. Thorn builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse. endstream Click here to resend it.). Officers can set customized alerts and search Spotlights constantly growing database of ads to aid in their investigations. Just within the last 12 months investigators reported: Officers who login weekly report a time savings of 60% in their human trafficking investigations. Reports from our users show that, with the help of Spotlight, law enforcement is identifying 9 kids per day on average and those who use Spotlight daily see over 60% in time savings. 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. Spotlight is a web-based application that helps law enforcement prioritize leads in their sex trafficking investigations. Leadership Spotlight: Leading with the Pen - The Handwritten Note. Spotlight is like a investigative partner in human trafficking investigations. Both products had been around longer than Spotlight and had a few hundred more users than us at the time. BACKGROUND Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. I also conducted guerrilla usability testing to learn about the major pain points of the product itself. $25/mo. Use of THOR in a manner outside the scope of these Rules is strictly prohibited. Officers who login weekly report a time savings of 60% in their human trafficking investigations. result in increased adoption of Thorns tools, a reduction in time to stop abuse and an increase in risk for perpetrators. Law enforcement doesnt have enough time to navigate the online commercial sex market to find children and identify their traffickers. Copyright 2023 IBTimes LLC. Using this data the company worked with law enforcement to understand how such digital footprints could lead to the discovery of victims and their traffickers. to get more GuideStar Nonprofit Profile data today! We are only one player in a critical ecosystem working on behalf of our children. Washington D.C. tax attorney Kevin E. Thorn, Managing Partner of Thorn Law Group, explains. I was given the goal of on-boarding 250 users in the next six months. 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. User research through interviews, personas, and journey mapping of proactive and reactive searches had already been done prior to my start date. Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. Thorn was founded in 2012 by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore to combat online child abuse. 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. The internet has become a widely used place for sex traffickers to advertise. x["Yn 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). Numbers are to date since the launch of our tool in 2014. 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. from UCLA and an M.B.A. from Northwestern. According to our most recent survey, it is helping find more human trafficking victims, faster. Thorn's Spotlight tool combines publicly available classified ad and online forum data with smart algorithms to help law enforcement identify an average of eight child sex trafficking victims every day. In the last five years, we have reached more than 2.6 million people globally through our child pornography deterrence program. Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Since 2016 alone, Spotlight has helped officers in the United States and Canada open more than 21,000 trafficking cases and identify about 18,000 victims, including more than 6,000 children. This combination of streamlining workflows and increasing successful victim identification is what has propelled Spotlight to continue to grow its user base. My background in law enforcement and anti-human trafficking was well suited for the needs of Spotlight when I first joined the team. The objective of Spotlight is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of domestic sex trafficking investigations and increase the number of children who are identified and connected with help resources. Technology is a powerful tool. %PDF-1.7 Nothing makes my job more rewarding when a victim says "thank you" and tells me about her rebuilt life. Learn more about Spotlight. 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. All rights reserved. In 2013, we published the first version of The Thorn Sound Practices Guide, which educates companies about proven practices, tools and resources that exist to identify, remove, report and prevent child sexual abuse material and abusive behavior on their platforms. Spotlight, on the other hand, is a complex piece of software that doesn't have any sales to help fund its production. The Amazon Rekognition team has been very responsive in helping us address any challenges we encounter.". This year, Dressember is proud to partner with Thorn, an organization that uses technology to combat child sex trafficking. Register. Spotlight helps officers identify child sex-trafficking ads much faster than the old paper-and-pencil methods., Brooke Istook, Director of Strategy and Operations, Thorn. The good news is, this can help investigators track down traffickers. Spotlight is a web tool used by law enforcement agencies to more efficiently search the internet for victim and trafficker information. 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. stream "Abusers had figured out how to use advanced technology to facilitate their exploitation of children," says Sarah Potts, the head of marketing and communications for Thorn, the California-based nonprofit that created Spotlight. Please check your inbox in order to proceed. 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. $300/yr. $180/yr. Please continue to fund this very important resource; it saves lives. 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. Sign In. Thorn is a registered 501(c)(3) organizationEIN: 27-0943677, 2023 Thorn. 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. We can use this tool to gather intelligence and plot trends prior to conducting an operation, during the operation we can allocate resources effectively and tighten our investigative vision to have the greatest immediate impact, and following this operation we can couple Spotlight with information gathered in interviews to develop a more complete picture of the scope of Human Trafficking in our area.. The Law Enforcement Family. 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. Hi-fidelity prototypes of key touch points on the Spotlight website. about GuideStar Pro. Spotlight has been used in 21,044 cases identifying 12,328 adults, 5,791 children, and 6,553 traffickers in the past two years. 10 0 obj It's a hard question but an important one. 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. A virtual team based in the U.S., Thorn employs 25 people. 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. Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Additionally, many new supervisors inevitably will speak with and encourage employees to ensure they take care of their . Hear more from investigators using Spotlight on the front lines. Spotlight takes this massive amount of data and turns it into an asset for law enforcement. 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. I started by conducting a competitive and stakeholder analysis to help with the overall discovery of where we were with our current process. Moreover, users wanted to learn from a law enforcement investigator currently using our tool - so we made sure to co-teach with a superuser. In 2012, we learned that 75% of child sex trafficking victims were being bought and sold online. Building is a core value that informs every strategy in our organization. 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. Have you recently published a useful resource? 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.". Most locations in the United States are updated every six hours. It is the greatest tool we have in the fight against human trafficking., Special Agent, Wisconsin Human Trafficking Task Force. All Rights Reserved. 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. 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. Our brand NoFiltr reaches youth directly with prevention and support messaging to help them better recognize online grooming. Registration is open for Dressember 2018 and fundraising has already started! "We tested multiple facial-recognition services and found Amazon Rekognition was extremely accurate," says Kristin Boorse, the director of product management for Thorn. Thorn developed Spotlight, an app that helps law enforcement close trafficking cases much faster than by using traditional manual methods. $120 $180 $300 Other Other. Education and engagement with the public change risky and abusive behaviors. <> All rights reserved. stream With only a 25% response rate, were confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact. Lucas Moore is a writer in Los Angeles. My background in law enforcement and anti-human trafficking was well suited for the needs of Spotlight when I first joined the team. We piloted our workshop at the 2015 Atlanta ICAC Conference and received additional feedback on how to improve Spotlight Lab. Our product Safer is the first holistic solution for tech companies to detect, remove, and report child sexual abuse material at scale. Leadership Spotlight: Leading At-Risk Employees - Law Enforcement and the Addiction Crisis. 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. 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). Furthermore, by making sure users were engaged and properly trained, user surveys have shown that Spotlight has since been able to reduce the time it takes to investigate a human trafficking case by 43%, identified close to 2,000 children, and over 2,000 traffickers. <>/ExtGState<>/XObject<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> Somewhere in that pile of data are children who are bought and sold online for sex. Thorn Helps Law Enforcement Identify Child Sex-Trafficking Victims Faster on AWS. Thorn also works to speed the identification of children featured in sexually abusive material. Nokia's New G22 Phone Allows You To Repair Broken Parts Yourself; A Knack For Storytelling: Should AI Take Over What Makes Us Human? 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. Expanded partnerships with law enforcement. A verification email has been sent to you. The software, called Spotlight, is now used across all 50 states by more than 4,000 law enforcement officers, according to Thorn's website. We have resource guides for researchers across the globe on all forms of trafficking for various stakeholders. Thank you for supporting the fight to end human trafficking! <> Our team built and launched Spotlight in 2014 to improve investigator workflow to find child victims faster. Thorn Helps Law Enforcement Identify Child Sex-Trafficking Victims Faster on AWS Answering the Challenge Using AWS The Tennessee Fusion Center may share information contained within THOR with other law . A GuideStar Pro report containing the following information is available for this organization: This information is only available for subscribers and in Premium reports. Our products would not be successful without the partnership we receive from the law enforcement users in every state, at every level of government, and in 37 other countries who use our products, give us feedback, and work tirelessly to identify children. endobj Our web-based tool is now used by over 5,000 officers in all 50 states and Canada. We'll keep it out of your inbox, promise. is the CEO of Thorn and has helped grow the organization from inception in 2012. Most Popular Stories. You can view our, Meet the 2019 Skoll Awardees for Social Entrepreneurship. Thorn is a registered 501(c)(3) organizationEIN: 27-0943677, 2023 Thorn. Thorn builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse. Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Spotlight evolved from surveys completed by victims of . Similarly, The Tote Project, sells their bags, which helps them pay expenses. This process was relatively ad hoc, however, with no identified workflow to drive rapid acquisition and adoption. Question but an important one at scale ensure they take care of their be. Thorn is a web-based application that helps law enforcement more quickly identify sex trafficking - the Handwritten Note our to! Major pain points of the impact for our local and global partners by creating campaign. 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