Human Trafficking Awareness Month: HSToday Interview with Kevin Metcalf

This January, HSToday sat down with Founder and President of the National Child Protection Task Force, Kevin Metcalf.

A former federal agent turned prosecutor, he founded the National Child Protection Task Force to bring together recognized experts in fields such as strategic legal applications, open-source intelligence, cellular mapping analysis, dark-web investigations, and cryptocurrency to help law enforcement agencies everywhere.

The task force is a concept he had wanted to develop for quite a while “because nobody can be an expert in everything every day, especially a technology-heavy area like this.” The task force began to form in 2018 and, since then, others have stepped up to volunteer their expertise and resources.

Through the Task Force Metcalf is involved in the recovery of missing and exploited children and the identification and apprehension of sexual predators around the world. He is an international leader in innovative approaches to synthesizing legal, closed, and open-source information to support missing person recovery and counter-human trafficking cases worldwide.

Metcalf works with a wide variety of jurisdictions to fight the criminal networks that operate under the radar of most law enforcement.

These networks traffic people and often assign people specific tasks such as being a driver. They profit from the misery of other people and will do anything to make money including the transportation of guns, drugs, and people. Metcalf says while this is nothing new as far as the big picture goes, thinking purely jurisdictionally is hampering operations because a lot can be missed that way.

Metcalf also developed a system for working with cell phone-related data in criminal cases that developed into a mobile device foundational course that focuses on the integration of legally derived information with open-source information.