human trafficking and child sexual exploitation.
“WHAT IS”
Child Sexual Exploitation
Child Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking is an enormous issue globally and right here in Middle Tennessee that most people are not aware of.
Our Mission
Shining a light of hope into the dark underworld of human trafficking and child exploitation
Advanced Technology
With access to some of the fastest computers in the world we work with local authorities to locate and bring children home to where they belong.
- Fight Child Exploitation
- Rescue Americans from Afghanistan
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Human Traffic Investigations
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Training Police Officers
About US
Matt Murphy, Founder and CEO of Operation Light Shine (OLS) was on the front lines of the global war on terror as an elite special operations soldier. Matt had virtually unlimited resources, personnel and support to wage the fight against terrorism around the world.
In 2019, Matt’s sister, Sarah, was kidnapped and murdered. Sarah had spent years struggling with addiction and dealing with the struggles that so often accomplice a dependence of that kind. She was trafficked and participated in prostitution to feed her addiction – a slave to the drugs and the dealers.
While reeling with the news of her murder and looking for answers, Matt learned very quickly how under-resourced, under-staffed, and under-funded the police were, bound by constraints and thus were unable to effectively investigate her disappearance and death. Instead of getting mad at the system and giving up, Matt decided to take action by creating Operation Light Shine in August of 2020.
Operation Light Shine’s mission is to fight Human Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation domestically and abroad. Matt’s unique experience as a special operator inspired him to work towards unilateral collaboration with law enforcement and specialists in a joint effort much like the military and government agencies conducted the global war on terror. By bringing a Task Force concept stateside, we can all work together to combat Human Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation.
Operation Light Shine has empowered two mechanisms to lay the foundation needed to accomplish our organization’s mission: OLS created the INTERCEPT (Interagency Child Exploitation and Persons Trafficking) Task Force, this is our domestic effort combatting human trafficking and child exploitation. OLS forged a partnership with Lantern Rescue (now funded by OLS) Lantern Rescue uses the US Army Special Forces strategy “by, with and through” creating international task forces in partner countries focused on combatting the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation crisis abroad.
the problem
13,000,000+
In the past twelve months in the United States, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has received over 13 Million images and videos of the sexual exploitation of children from law enforcement agencies.
17,000,000+
Almost 17 Million cases (327,000 a week) have been received from Social Media and other online providers by the NCMEC on top of the images and videos received by law enforcement agencies.
+83%
From 2019 – 2020, TBI received 829 human trafficking leads of which 535 involved minors. In the same time period TBI received 677 Cyber Tips, an 83% increase over the previous year.
The Solution
WHAT WE DO
Forming the Middle Tennessee Child Exploitation and Trafficking Task Force with all of the resources, staffing and support required to identify and rescue child victims, apprehend their offenders and reduce the risk.
A state-of-the-art facility will bring together law enforcement, prosecutors, victim services and medical professionals in a multi-disciplinary approach to fight the exploitation and trafficking of our children.
The task force facility would be a world class first of its kind workspace providing any and all resources required to conduct investigations, plan and run operations, identify and rescue victims, educate parents and youth, process and analyze seized data and serve the Middle Tennessee community.