2022 Guardian Group Impact Report
Human trafficking – the buying and selling of people – is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. Every day in America, there are 150,000 new advertisements selling people for sex online. Our law enforcement agencies do not have the resources to adequately combat this crime alone.
Guardian Group’s PURSUIT® team is made up of People United Responsibly Suppressing Underage Illicit Trafficking. Since inception the PURSUIT team has consisted of internal analysts working tirelessly to match the problem of domestic sex trafficking and this strategy remains highly effective. However, over the last few years, the need for a complimentary program to help scale to match the ever-increasing domestic sex trafficking problem has been in the forefront of our minds.
Since 2019 we have worked in concert with higher learning, tech firms, and law enforcement officers to deliver a scalable solution, harnessing the power of volunteers across the country to fight sex trafficking in their own community. Through years of testing and refining Project 1591® was launched in July of 2022. The development and on-boarding of volunteers remained our priority throughout the year.
By harnessing the power of volunteers across the nation, underage victims of sex trafficking will be identified, and time-sensitive information will be passed to law enforcement partners ready to receive this product to take action. The results, more victims offered a path to freedom!
In 2022 we prioritized our offensive efforts and the launch of Project 1591. Through this we recognized that focusing on our primary mission is how we have the most impact. Therefore, moving into 2023 we will no longer be offering training.
The work Guardian Group does through the PURSUIT program is unique and vital in the fight against sex trafficking. There are numerous other well-respected organizations that offer similar training and moving into 2023 we are happy to let them carry this piece of the puzzle while we focus all our efforts on victim identification.
Guardian Group’s core mission and vision remain the same while our strategy has been refined.
We prevent and disrupt the sex trafficking of women and children in the United States.
Our vision is that every child in the US lives free from sex trafficking. We are seeing this vision come to life as more victims are offered a path to freedom.
The Guardian Group team utilizes two most efficient and proven strategies to achieve this mission. Through our own expertise and the help of our crowdsourced volunteer force, we identify women and minors who are victims of domestic sex trafficking nationwide. Our no-cost support to local, state, and federal law enforcement results in increased recovery of these victims. Together we are harnessing the power of many to find the vulnerable.