By Evan Valentine
“I am finally free, aren’t I?” came the trauma-laden and diminutive voice from the back passenger side seat. A spot that we typically reserve for executives, CEOs, and other types of protectees we encounter in our line of work. We were halfway between the pick-up location and the safe house, and I had been focused on driving and awareness while also listening to the survivor we were transporting talk with my partner, a woman trained in trauma-informed communication and interacting with victims of commercial sex trafficking. After giving us many of the details of her traumatic experience of being trafficked for sex, she spoke those words, and it was all I could do not to tear up.
This was my first-time volunteering with my local anti-sex trafficking response non-profit. This non-profit is one of the few that conducts “exits” for survivors. Exits (some call them rescues, but at our organization we view this as less empowering to survivors) involve coordinating a pickup and secured transportation to safe housing for a survivor who has contacted our hotline, or was referred to us via law enforcement such as the Central Ohio Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, local PDs, sheriff’s offices, etc. Once at the safe house, the survivor can stay there for 3-6 weeks (or more if needed) for emergency stabilization.
This stay gets survivors much-needed help and services while placement in a long-term recovery program is coordinated. Hearing the horrors this survivor went through, as well as her subsequent relief and declaration of freedom during this drive, forever changed my life. I knew then that volunteering with this group, known now as The Freedom Collective (or TFC for short), would be a major piece of my life henceforth.
The Benefits of Bringing EP Skills into the Anti-Sex Trafficking Movement
So why is this article appearing here, you may ask, in this professional space for executive protection?
It is because our profession is uniquely suited to volunteering with the various anti-human trafficking non-profits and NGOs around the country. Particularly with those groups that conduct exits, provide secured or public transportation of other forms (plane, bus, train, etc), provide safe housing, drop-in centers, and other more boots-on-the-ground or hands-on type of services.
The Executive Protection sector and its associated branches are built around mitigating and reducing the risk of protectee movements, events, and operations through planning, observations, assessment, intelligence, and a carefully curated toolbelt of various skills and attributes that are based on the mind more than the body. While hard skills are important, these intellectual ones are what define the profession and are most applicable to the non-profit groups combatting sex trafficking. Most of these must operate unarmed, as they are not acting with any law enforcement or government powers, nor any private security licensure, and cannot get insured if they operate armed.
Despite some who assert that professional protectors should carry guns even when it’s illegal, most of us know that if someone actually is a capable protector, then they can operate without firearms in “non-permissive” environments if needed.
Our abilities as protectors should not begin and end with a firearm. We are to be much more than a hired gun or a large body for soaking bullets. It is also the case that most of the people, at least in my experience, who are volunteering in these non-profit teams are not coming in with high-speed low-drag backgrounds in law enforcement, military, emergency services, security, executive protection, or other related experience.
Most are regular everyday citizens, wanting to help fight this most heinous of evils for various reasons ranging from religious faith, personal or familial connections they know who have been harmed by sex trafficking, their own personal past as victims of trafficking, or some other moral or ethical framework that has placed a burden on their heart to help free others from this modern slavery. Most of these volunteers’ day jobs are nowhere even close to touching regular emergency services or law enforcement, let alone “the dark world” as former DSS Counterterrorism Agent and Ontic Founder Fred Burton calls it.
This is where our skills can be brought in to help.
While anti-trafficking work of this kind doesn’t allow for in depth advances for most exits, nor are we rolling in armored vehicles or strapped with guns, our ability to assess risk in real time, conduct a hasty digital advance or quick drive by recon of the pickup location, plan routes, monitor for hostile surveillance and check for/shake a tail, cover and evacuate (get off the X), and provide high level protective and evasive driving are of great benefit to this work and to reducing the risk when conducting these operations.
Much like with normal EP where points of transition and travel are the least secure and most likely spots for attack, our greatest danger exists at the pickup locations, despite the fact we try and make it as neutral, safe, and public a pickup location as possible.
I have had more than one high-risk exit whereby the conditions were less than optimal, so a hasty digital advance was conducted, a recon drive-by occurred when we first got near the site, and our time on target to load the survivor and her personal effects up was less than 60 seconds, before swiftly leaving the area and beginning the 2.5-hour drive to the safe house. That long drive subsequently gave us quite a bit of time to determine if we were being tailed, and to integrate some surveillance detection routes into our larger route of travel along the way.
Another area we can aid in involves risk and vulnerability assessments for the safe homes, drop-in centers, and other infrastructure that is being utilized by the anti-trafficking non-profits. While a big focus of building these safe houses is often using trauma-informed design with a focus on giving the survivors exactly what they need in order to heal and find a long-term recovery program to unpack, process, and heal from their experiences, these safe houses also need to be just as secure as a safe house we would want for our protectees at our day jobs.
Obviously, if we make it too obviously a Fort Knox-type structure, it could impair the survivor’s ability to feel comfortable and safe, because they may feel jailed, trapped, surveilled, etc. We must treat these safe houses like that of a client who wants quality security but also detests noticeably overt security and the presence of obvious protective measures.
Knowing how to enhance these safe homes’ security stances with measures that more naturally blend in or are minimally intrusive is something we can offer. We can also help by advising on emergency planning, recommendations on general volunteer emergency equipment, and threat assessments for threats that come to our awareness that are aimed towards fellow volunteers, survivors, and the non-profits themselves. We can also offer a lot through just our knowledge and information sharing.
I am currently rolling out trainings at The Freedom Collective on situational awareness, stress inoculation and stress management, and a niche training/policy manual specifically on providing secured transportation for survivors of sex trafficking in a non-profit/NGO setting. Much of the knowledge we take for granted as basic to our world, such as the science of awareness, Coopers colors, the OODA Loop, and more are not commonplace to the average everyday person that is volunteering.
The “White Glove” Touch
The last domain we can really have an impact on is probably the least obvious when thinking about what sex-trafficking survivors need that we can help with. Obviously, we are highly focused on safety, resource connection, and addressing trauma. What we shouldn’t overlook, and what I have found to be undeniably integral to building trust when survivors first get into the vehicle and helping them truly feel they are free, is treating them with the same “white glove touch” that we would any protectee of a high net worth, executive, celebrity, or political status.
One of the other lessons I learned in that first exit was this very concept, which the survivor brought up after telling us she finally felt free. She specifically noted that the vehicle (a luxury SUV) being set up in such a manner with a blanket, water, snacks, spare clothes if needed, and her space being equipped with a tray table and other creature comforts made her feel like royalty. She attributed this drastic change in how she was just living a day before to be part of what helped her feel free and know that she could trust us.
She wasn’t climbing into some filthy, half-broken-down car or cab. She was sitting in the seat of an executive, being given anything she may need, and treated with the respect and dignity she hadn’t been treated with in a long time. When we employ this same level of care as we would for a regular protectee in our day jobs, the healing for these survivors can begin as soon as they set foot in our vehicles and begin the journey to the safe house. Instilling that sense of dignity right away helps that mental shift to take root.
Call to Action
The skills we have, the things we can teach, the knowledge and experience that can allow us to participate in this work and do so safely, while making others safer as well. I make this plea now, to urge and ask my brothers and sisters in this sector to find your local anti-trafficking non-profits and get connected. See what they need, see where you can add your expertise, experience, and skills to fight something I consider the most heinous and insidious evil of our modern era.
The reason there are so many anti-trafficking NGOs out there is that the problem is so large that law enforcement cannot keep up. Commercial sex trafficking is pervasive and, in our increasingly digitally connected world, is finding new ways to exploit the victims it sinks its depraved teeth into.
As I previously stated, I volunteer with the Freedom Collective as the Response Team Leader, but there are many other organizations out there as well. Rescue America, Her Song, She Has a Name, Freedom Aviation Network, Flights to Freedom, Invisible Angels, Scarlet Hope, Polaris Project, Our Rescue, Safe House Project, Tim Tebow Foundation, Freedom Network USA, Thorn, and many more.
No matter your specialty or branch of the profession you are in, there is a non-profit out there that could benefit from the experience and knowledge many in this sector put forth. We can also bring to bear our networks and connections to aid this work. We spend a lot of time networking in EP so we can create relationships that can help us more effectively keep our protectees safe. This same concept is valid here too.
There is no reason we cannot leverage all the tools at our disposal to aid in this fight. In a perfect world, our involvement wouldn’t be needed. In a perfect world, there would be no one stuck in the clutches of commercial sex trafficking. Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in, so I ask again. To my brothers and sisters involved in the EP community and beyond, will you join me in this fight?
I hope you do, because I believe that if you are like me and draw great value from protecting others and making such a direct and visible impact in others’ lives, then you too will find your heart burdened with this mission after your first time getting involved. You too will feel the call to action deep in your soul, and we will all be that much closer to eradicating this evil from our world when you add your skills and knowledge to the fight.
Evan Valentine is a Private Protection, Investigation, and Security professional, with experience in ultra-high-net-worth family protection, healthcare security, and non-profit anti-human trafficking response. He is currently finishing up a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice and will be pursuing a Master’s through the Henley Putnam School of Strategic Security. Evan holds multiple industry-specific certifications, and his focus is always on helping others, ensuring safety, and advocating for those who need protection.
