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Our Rescue
U.S.-based nonprofit organization From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Our Rescue (previously Operation Underground Railroad, abbreviated O.U.R., previously styled as "OUR Rescue"[1]) is a nonprofit United States–based anti–sex trafficking organization founded in 2013 by Tim Ballard.[2] The organization has been criticized for its conduct during sting operations and has been accused of exaggerating claims regarding its work.[2][3] The group has conducted multiple sting operations, some outside the United States, and donated technological and monetary resources to law-enforcement agencies that combat sex trafficking.[2][4]
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The group's founder, Tim Ballard, was the subject of an internal investigation in 2023 after multiple former employees accused him of "sexual harassment, spiritual manipulation, grooming, and sexual misconduct". Ballard resigned as CEO in June 2023, as a result of the investigation.[5]
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Founding
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Operation Underground Railroad was founded in 2013 by Tim Ballard.[2][6]
Ballard has said that, prior to founding Our Rescue, he served 12 years as a U.S. Special Agent for the Department of Homeland Security, on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) and the U.S. Child Sex Tourism Jump Team. According to The Atlantic, "spokespeople for the CIA and DHS said they could not confirm Ballard's employment record without his written permission, which he did not provide."[7] According to Ballard, he was frustrated with the lack of strategies employed to rescue kidnapped and trafficked children in underdeveloped nations, and the inability to prosecute offenders in non-U.S. related cases.[8][9] Subsequently, he left government service in October 2013 to found Operation Underground Railroad.[8][9][10]
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Controversies
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Justice Department warning
In February 2016, the Justice Department advised members of ICAC against "being involved in, assisting or supporting operations with" the Our Rescue; the commander of ICAC's Washington branch stated in an email to state and local police that Our Rescue was not affiliated with ICAC and that "no task-force group should partner with O.U.R. or provide O.U.R. with 'any resources, equipment, personnel, training'."[11]
Connections to QAnon
A September 2020 Vice News article described Our Rescue as "QAnon-adjacent" and embracing followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which other trafficking charities had distanced themselves from.[12] Ballard told The New York Times, "Some of these theories have allowed people to open their eyes. So now it's our job to flood the space with real information so the facts can be shared."[13][14][12]
Misleading self-promotion
In a December 2020 article, Vice News said that Tim Ballard embellished Our Rescue's role in the rescue of a trafficked woman, stating that they did not find "outright falsehoods but a pattern of image-burnishing and mythology-building, a series of exaggerations that are, in the aggregate, quite misleading".[2] A 2021 follow-up article further criticized Our Rescue's practices, including using inexperienced donors and celebrities as part of its jump team, a lack of meaningful surveillance or identification of targets, failing to validate whether the people they intended to rescue were in fact actual trafficking victims, and conflating consensual sex work with sex trafficking.[15]
A 2021 article in Slate criticized an armed 2014 raid conducted by Our Rescue in the Dominican Republic, which was filmed live by a camera crew to use in a proposed reality TV show, saying that it was likely to have traumatized the trafficked children.[3] The children rescued in the raid were released a few weeks later, without having received the three months of rehabilitative care that was hoped to be provided.[16]
In June 2022, Vice reported that Our Rescue falsely announced on its Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as on Ballard's Instagram account that Our Rescue had "partnered" with American Airlines and that the airline would show a video about Our Rescue's work on all domestic flights that month. American Airlines said that they had never had a partnership or affiliation with Our Rescue or ever shown any of their videos, and that they were "taking appropriate action to have these posts removed".[17] Our Rescue released a statement that the apparent mix up was due to their advertising agency informing them of the deal with American Airlines, which was not finalized yet.[18]
Ballard's sexual misconduct allegations
In the summer of 2023, Ballard stepped away from the organization after an internal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations made against him by multiple employees.[19][20] On June 22, 2023, Ballard resigned from the organization, although the reasons were not made public until September.[21]
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Organization structure
As of 2025, Our Rescue is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota and headed by CEO Derek Benner.[22][23][24] It had offices in Cedar City, Utah, and Anaheim, California, as of 2021.[25]
Leadership change
Our Rescue was founded in 2013 by Ballard. During his tenure, the organization faced criticism of its approach. This included from Anne Gallagher, an expert on the international law on human trafficking, who outlined a lack of victim aftercare.[26] Ballard reportedly consulted a psychic for intelligence on some missions.[27]
After Ballard was forced out as CEO, Our Rescue began a search for new leadership.[28][29] During the search, Matt Osborne, then President and COO, led the organization[30] until Lee was hired.[31] Benner succeeded Lee in 2025.[24]
In 2024, the organization announced that it would entirely change its approach to how it conducted its operations. This included more services for survivors, awarding grants to nonprofits and continuing working with law enforcement.[32]
Financials
Our Rescue reported $6.9 million in revenues to the IRS in 2016, $22.3 million in 2019.[33] According to Ministry Watch and ProPublica, the organization took in more than $45 million in 2020 and spent about $13.5 million on its work of allegedly rescuing sex trafficking victims – an unspent difference of $33.9 million;[34][35] in 2021, it was $42 million, while spending $31 million; and in 2022, Our Rescue took in more than $27 million in donations, down from a peak of almost $46 million in 2020, and spent close to $32 million on program services.[34] As of December 2022, Operation Underground Railroad had more than $60 million in assets.[34]
In 2023, Our Rescue reported $50 million in revenue and $53 million in expenses to the IRS.[36]
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Operations
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As of 2021, Our Rescue had offices in Cedar City, Utah, and Anaheim, California.[33]
International operations
In 2014, Our Rescue participated in a sting operation in Cartagena, Colombia.[37][9] In April 2022, Our Rescue members attended an anti-trafficking summit in Cartagena, Colombia.[38]
In 2022, Our Rescue also provided investigative and undercover support in the arrests of pro-pedophilia activists Nelson Maatman, who fled to Mexico, and Marthijn Uittenbogaard and his partner, who both fled to Ecuador.[39][40]
Law enforcement support
Between 2015 and 2018, Our Rescue donated more than $170,000 to Washington State Patrol's "Net Nanny" sting program. The money was used for "additional detectives, hotels, food and overtime".[11] Sergeant Carlos Rodriguez, the initiator of the sting program arranged positive media coverage for Our Rescue,[11] solicited donations for them,[41] and, upon his retirement in 2019, was employed by Our Rescue as their domestic coordinator.[11]
Aftercare
Our Rescue says it runs a non-profit aftercare program,[42] providing medical and psychological services, education, and vocational opportunities to survivors.[43] In January 2022, Our Rescue stated that in 2021 it provided aftercare in 30 countries.[44] In February 2020, Our Rescue paid for an adopted Wisconsin woman to visit her biological parents after she discovered that she had been stolen from them as a baby and trafficked through orphanage fraud. After using the DNA test to trace her heritage back to India and Israel, the woman found her ethnic minority Roma family that lived in Romania and had since moved to Italy.[45]
According to Foreign Policy, in 2014, "after OUR's first operation in the Dominican Republic, a local organization called the National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI when abbreviated in Spanish) quickly discovered it didn't have the capacity to handle the 26 girls rescued. They were released in less than a week."[10]
ESD K-9
In 2022, Our Rescue bought over 50 dogs trained to detect electronic storage devices (ESD/SD Cards, including cell phones, hard drives, and hidden cameras) from Jordan Detection K9 and donated them to police departments in several U.S. states and Thailand.[46][47][48] ESD K9s are also trained to provide comfort to victims.[49]
Our Rescue assesses the needs of the area to select which agencies it will donate the dogs.[49] Dogs donated by Our Rescue have been connected to the arrests of individuals for child pornography.[50]
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In popular media
- In 2016, The Abolitionists, a documentary produced by Gerald Molen, featured the first operations undertaken by Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad.[51]
- Another documentary from director Nick Nanton, Operation Toussaint,[52] was produced in 2018, which featured an operation in Haiti that had the support of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and former U.S. congresswoman Mia Love of Utah.[53] Deseret News movie critic Josh Terry described Operation Toussaint as "an engrossing and expert production" but also said it "feels more like a promotional film than a strictly traditional documentary".[54][55]
- The documentary Triple Take (2020) was filmed about sting operations in Colombia.[56]
- A feature film, Sound of Freedom, starring Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard, was announced in 2018,[57][58] and released in theaters in 2023.[59]
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Publicity and celebrity endorsements
In 2015, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes joined Ballard in a sting operation in Colombia.[60]
Corbin Kaufusi, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, and Tony Robbins have helped raise funds for Our Rescue[61][62] In July 2021, Our Rescue partnered with a Ft. Myers, Florida, Harley-Davidson dealership in organizing a "freedom ride to raise awareness about child sex trafficking".[63] In 2018, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin went to Haiti "for a first-hand experience" with Our Rescue, which was filmed for ESPN.[64]
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References
Further reading
External links
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