Originally published 2019-10-18.
Saved In America (SIAM) is a San Diego-based nonprofit whose volunteers, many of them former Navy SEALs and retired police officers working as licensed private investigators, help families and police find missing and runaway children, often before those children are drawn into sex trafficking. The group was founded in 2014 by Joseph Travers, a former police officer and investigator, and says it charges families nothing for its work. By its own count it has assisted in about 270 recoveries since December 2014.
Their story went viral in 2019 with headlines about "Navy SEALs saving teenagers from trafficking". The core of it is true, but the numbers that usually accompany it are often mixed up. Here is what the organisation does, how it works with law enforcement, and what the statistics actually measure.
How Saved In America started
Travers has said he was moved to act by the 2009 disappearance of Brittanee Drexel, a teenager from New York who vanished during a spring-break trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He had also read about former special-forces operators rescuing children abroad and wondered why nothing similar existed for children missing inside the United States.
The result was an all-volunteer group. Its members include retired Navy SEALs, former police detectives and other veterans of law enforcement. According to news reports, each field volunteer is a licensed private investigator and is licensed to carry a firearm. The organisation is registered as a 501(c)(3) charity in Valley Center, California, and is funded by donations.
How a case actually works
Most cases begin with a parent searching online for help after a child has gone missing, often when the child has been classed as a runaway and the family feels the search has stalled. SIAM's investigators then gather intelligence: social media accounts, phone data, the people the child has been in contact with and places they may be staying.
Crucially, the volunteers do not make arrests themselves. A law-enforcement liaison passes the information to local or federal police, who carry out the actual recovery and any arrests. In one case covered by Sinclair stations in 2018, a girl named Cecelia had left a group home with only her phone; the team traced her through her online contacts to an apartment in Oceanside, and police then brought her home.
The case that made SIAM widely known was reported by PEOPLE in 2018. A 16-year-old girl had been taken along with a friend while out on her bike, and her parents, identified only as Maureen and David, said police were treating her as a runaway. They contacted SIAM, and within a week the team had located her before she could be sold.
What happens after a child is found
Finding a child is only the first step. Young people who have been exploited often need legal help, a safe place to live and long-term trauma therapy. SIAM says it helps victims obtain legal representation, safe housing and rehabilitative care, and connects them with specialist support organisations.
Some children run away more than once. Travers has described a 15-year-old who had to be recovered twice, a pattern familiar to anyone who works with young people at risk. Recovery without support can simply lead back to the same situation.
Getting the numbers right
Viral versions of this story usually open with large statistics. Some of them need context:
- "8.2 million reports in 2016." That was the number of reports received in 2016 by the CyberTipline of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Most CyberTipline reports concern suspected child sexual abuse material online, not individual trafficking cases or missing children, so this figure should not be read as 8.2 million trafficked children.
- "7,621 cases" in 2016. This figure, cited by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, refers to cases handled by the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which cover adults as well as children and labour as well as sex trafficking.
- "20% of runaways are victims." NCMEC's own estimates are lower and specific: in its most recent figures, about 1 in 7 children reported missing to it were likely victims of child sex trafficking. Earlier years were reported as 1 in 6. These estimates refer to children reported to NCMEC, not to all runaways.
- SIAM's success rate. PEOPLE reported that in early 2018 the team had recovered all 58 people it had investigated, and other reports gave totals of 208 or 223 recoveries since 2014. These are the organisation's own figures and have not been independently audited. One summary says about 60 percent of children were found before being trafficked; another says 60 percent had been trafficked or taken against their will. Its current website lists 270 recoveries since December 2014.
None of this lessens the value of the work. It simply means the scale of child trafficking is best described with careful, sourced figures.
The "runaway" problem
A common complaint from families, repeated in many articles about SIAM, is that police treat a missing teenager as a runaway and do little to search. Some reports go as far as saying officers have no legal duty to look for a runaway child. That claim is misleading. Under US federal law, police must enter a missing child report into the FBI's National Crime Information Center without a waiting period, and Suzanne's Law (2003) extended the no-waiting-period rule to missing young adults aged 18 to 21.
The real problem is usually resources and priorities. Officers handle large caseloads, and a teenager who has left home voluntarily before may be seen as low risk. NCMEC lists risk factors that make some children far more vulnerable: a history of trauma, unstable housing, time in the child welfare or juvenile justice system, substance use and gang contact. Travers has said that drugs played a part in every trafficking case he had seen.
What families can do
- Report immediately. Call the police as soon as a child is missing. There is no legal waiting period for children.
- Tell NCMEC too. After making a police report, families in the US can report a missing child, especially a runaway, to NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). Suspected exploitation can be reported to the CyberTipline.
- Preserve digital clues. Social media accounts, messages and phone records are often the fastest way to find a missing teenager.
- Look after the child afterwards. Trauma support matters as much as the recovery itself; a doctor or counsellor can help guide next steps.
Saved In America's founders have described their work as filling a gap between overstretched police forces and frightened families. The group has reportedly received strong endorsements from officers who have worked alongside it, and it has begun teaching its investigative methods to other agencies.
Sources: Saved In America: What we do; Sinclair Broadcast Group / WJLA, Saved In America (26 November 2018); Pedagogy Education: SIAM, Saved In America; PEOPLE; NCMEC: Child sex trafficking; Wikipedia: Suzanne's Law; Upworthy Megaphone. Image credits: Saved In America.
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