Using Interagency Collaboration and Innovation to Fight Transnational Security Challenges

At any given time, there are 27.6 million victims of human trafficking across the globe. Multiple Federal agencies have missions and responsibilities related to combating this horrendous crime and often need to work together to make an impact.

While many associate this complex crime with sexual exploitation, it also extends to trafficking for forced labor, forced criminal activity, and other forms of exploitation involving myriad bad actors and transnational criminal organizations.

Collaboration among Federal agencies continues to expand to prevent and counter this crime. Federal agencies have pooled resources to fight not only human trafficking but also a range of other transnational security threats, such as the illicit trade of drugs and firearms.

Federal agencies constantly innovate to tackle transnational security challenges like human trafficking. For example, a partnership between Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Special Operations Command, one of the U.S. armed forces’ combatant commands, formed the Human Exploitation Rescue Operative Child Rescue Corps Program (HERO).

The HERO program recruits discharged veterans from the U.S. armed forces to combat child exploitation, one of the main drivers of human trafficking. Veterans in the program receive training in computer forensics and can assist HSI Special Agents with child exploitation cases.

While interagency collaboration is not new, innovative ideas to consolidate resources and tap new sources of talent, such as HERO, is a step in the right direction. Collaboration and teamwork are necessary to build a safer country, but innovation related to cross-agency collaboration speed up the process and make a more lasting impact in reducing human trafficking.