Human Trafficking: Sex Offender Unit  
September 2013
Voiceover: Beat Intro
00:00	
This is the Beat—a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing 
topics facing our nation.
Kimberly Brummett
00:08	
Hello and welcome. My name is Kimberly Brummett and on behalf of the COPS Office I’d like to 
introduce you to Mr. Paul Brennan. Mr. Brennan is a supervisory Community Supervision Officer of the 
Sex Offender Unit at Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, referred to CSOSA hereafter, in 
Washington, D.C. Today, Mr. Brennan is here with us to discuss the Unit’s work, and the intersection 
with human trafficking. Mr. Brennan, please tell us about the work you and your colleagues do at the 
Sex Offender Unit at CSOSA in Washington, D.C., and your experience with human trafficking.
Mr. Paul Brennan
00:42	
For the past 17 years we’ve developed a sex offender unit within our agency that’s designed to 
monitor and supervise all the sex offenders residing in the District of Columbia. Our agency, over the 
years, has expanded to three units—we have about 25 officers, and our case loads are about 25 to 1. 
We have developed specialized supervision techniques to monitor, specifically, sex offenders. And in 
the past three years or so, we began to take a different look at the issue of human trafficking in 
Washington, D.C. The Sex Offender Unit was determined to be the best place to manage all the sex 
trafficking cases that come through our office—primarily due to the special techniques we use with 
sex offenders that applied very well to the area of human trafficking. 
Kimberly
01:39	
In your work, what types of strategies do you and your colleagues use to identify suspected 
traffickers?
Paul
01:44	
Well, first we work very close with the Human Trafficking Task Force. They’re an integral partner in 
identifying who in the community may be engaged in human trafficking. The next phase would be to 
evaluate the cases that we have within the agency who have been convicted of sex-trafficking type 
charges or whom, otherwise, may be on supervision and have otherwise been identified by law 
enforcement as being involved in human trafficking or sex trafficking. Once we’ve identified those 
individuals, we work to get them assigned to my particular office. Once that occurs, then we begin to 
implement a specialized supervision strategy with those individuals.
Kimberly
02:33	
How can probation and supervision agencies, like CSOSA, work with law enforcement to prevent and 
combat trafficking?
Paul
02:40	
We found that community supervision agencies have a role in human trafficking task forces. 
Particularly in D.C., we found that there was some benefit to incorporating community supervision into 
the regular meetings with the task force to discuss case issues and to problem solve on particular 
issues involving individuals involved in human trafficking who may be under supervision with our 
agency. Some of the strategies that we’ve used, that we found effective is monitoring social 
networking activity, the use of GPS monitoring and tracking with offenders, and sharing the 
information we learn while supervising the offenders with task force members who may be actively 
investigating some of these individuals, or may be inclined to use some of that information to initiate 
investigations if that person is believed to be involved in human trafficking currently.
Kimberly 
03:44	
Right. Thank you Mr. Brennan for providing us with your expertise and time today.
Voiceover: Beat Exit
03:48	
The Beat was brought to you by the United States Department of Justice COPS Office. The COPS Office 
helps to keep our nation’s communities safe by giving grants to law enforcement agencies, developing 
community policing publications, developing partnerships, and solving problems.
Voiceover: Disclaimer
04:05	
The opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official 
position or polices of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, 
products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the authors or the U.S. 
Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.