Guardian Group: 2023 Third Quarter Impact Report
200 VICTIMS IDENTIFIED
to date in 2023
At the beginning of the third quarter, we welcomed a new member to the GG team! After 10 years of service in the Army, she has joined us as an analyst and as our Project 1591 Program Manager. On top of daily victim identification support to law enforcement, she is responsible for all the management and future development of our Project 1591 platform. This includes the management of our volunteer force’s focus and validating the leads they submit.
Part of her job includes facilitating quarterly volunteer days for Upstream Intelligence, a company that specializes in complex investigations. Once a quarter this company incentivizes their employees to spend a paid day volunteering for us. This quarter their team identified 8 victims across 6 states. Their single day of effort saved Guardian Group and law enforcement 80 investigative hours.
The 200 victims were identified in the 25 blue states.
1888 INVESTIGATIVE HOURS
From both Guardian Group’s internal Analysis Team and Project 1591’s volunteer force to date in 2023.
Active U.S. Law Enforcement partners in 21 states
Our law enforcement partners are continuing to spread across the country with 17 new cities added this last quarter. Every law enforcement partner represents a touchpoint to offer a victim a path to freedom. Escort ad websites are the starting point most often used to identify victims of trafficking to law enforcement. These sites allow you to filter by location and often the ads for a region are grouped under the largest city in the area. There are approximately 975 cities represented across the United States on these escort ad sites.
It is our goal to have a least 1 active law enforcement partner in each city represented on these sites. If you know a law enforcement officer interested in free research support for their counter sex trafficking work, please share this resource with them and help us expand our reach.
Sex trafficking is transient by nature and the jurisdictional boundaries officers must follow make this crime harder to combat. This quarter we watched this statewide distribution list work exactly as it is designed. An officer on their specific statewide list received a lead from us, this lead was out of their jurisdiction, meaning he could not take direct action. Instead, he coordinated the lead pass off to an officer in the jurisdiction and that officer was able to take appropriate action within his jurisdiction. This officer found a way to make an impact regardless of his legal boundary limitations.
This level of feedback loop from an officer is rare because officers must protect their cases and we never ask for follow-up information because of this. However, this process has also created another form of feedback loop on the educational side. Officers have reached out asking how we found information using free online tools so that they can try the same methods on their next case. Providing Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) tips and tricks to law enforcement only increases their ability to proactively combat this crime.
120 CERTIFIED VOLUNTEERS
This quarter we celebrated one year of Project 1591! The volunteer force has identified over 225 victims of domestic sex trafficking to law enforcement for action in the first year of its existence and is on track to increase victim identification by 400% compared to the previous year. This program was made possible by your generous support and commitment to this mission.
After months of work, we have introduced a new messaging function on the Project 1591 platform. This gives our internal Analysis Team the ability to communicate more directly with volunteers. This new inbox allows for more case feedback and will improve communication overall.
The Project 1591® certified volunteer force spans across the globe,
they are highlighted by the red states and located in 8 additional countries.
This quarter we launched Team 1591. Current research shows the less than half of 1% of victims of trafficking are ever identified. We exist to identify potential victims of trafficking to law enforcement for action.
The goal of Team 1591 is to rally 5,240 team members committed to giving at least $15.91 per month will result in an expanded Analysis Team. This team of skilled analysts can collectively generate and manage 2,300 victim identifications, at a minimum, of domestic trafficking annually.
Join the team today and help us change the trajectory of sex trafficking in the United States.