Our Rescue
Our Rescue, previously known as Operation Underground Railroad, is a nonprofit United States–based anti–sex trafficking organization founded in 2013 by Tim Ballard. 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. As Operation Underground Railroad during Ballard's tenure, the organization was criticized for its conduct during sting operations and accused of exaggerating claims regarding its work.
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. Weeks later, the organization was named in two separate lawsuits, in which the plaintiffs accused Tim Ballard of sexual assault, grooming, and coercing women into sexual acts during Our Rescue's sting operations.
Our Rescue is currently headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota and headed by CEO Derek Benner, as of 2025. It had offices in Cedar City, Utah, and Anaheim, California, as of 2021.
History
2013–2022: Early years
Operation Underground Railroad was founded in 2013 by Tim Ballard. 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. He left government service in October 2013 to found Operation Underground Railroad.In 2014, Our Rescue participated in a sting operation in Cartagena, Colombia.
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". Sergeant Carlos Rodriguez, the initiator of the sting program arranged positive media coverage for Our Rescue, solicited donations for them, and, upon his retirement in 2019, was employed by Our Rescue as their domestic coordinator.
In February 2016, the Justice Department advised members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force against "being involved in, assisting or supporting operations with" Operation Underground Railroad; the commander of ICAC's Washington branch stated in an email to state and local police that Operation Underground Railroad 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'."
In 2018, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin went to Haiti "for a first-hand experience" with Our Rescue, which was filmed for ESPN.
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.
A September 2020 Vice News article described Operation Underground Railroad as "QAnon-adjacent" and embracing followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which other trafficking charities had distanced themselves from. 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."
In April 2022, Our Rescue members attended an anti-trafficking summit in Cartagena, Colombia. In the same year, 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.
2023: Leadership change & Ballard 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. On June 22, 2023, Ballard resigned from Operation Underground Railroad, although the reasons were not made public until September.After Ballard was forced out as CEO, Operation Underground Railroad began a search for new leadership. During the search, Matt Osborne, the President and COO, led the organization. On February 26, 2024, Tammy Lee, a corporate executive with experience at Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, and the University of Minnesota Foundation, took over as the new CEO. Lee also served on the White House Interagency Task Force to Combat Trafficking in Persons.
In a December 2023 statement posted on its website, the organization said an independent law firm reached the conclusion that Ballard had "engaged in unprofessional behavior that violated OUR's policies and values".
2024–present
The organization changed its name from Operation Underground Railroad to OUR Rescue and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2024. Derek Benner was appointed as CEO in 2025.Operations
Field operations
Our Rescue works against human trafficking by supporting law enforcement's identification of sexual predators, its survivor programs and its education and prevention initiatives.The organization originally focused its efforts internationally, but following the new leadership it shifted its focus domestically. Our Rescue offers a guide called "Let’s Start Talking" on how parents can talk to children about online safety. They also go to schools with law enforcement to discuss online safety.
International operations
In 2014, Our Rescue participated in a sting operation in Cartagena, Colombia. In April 2022, Our Rescue members attended an anti-trafficking summit in Cartagena, Colombia.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.
Our Rescue has had operations in the Galapagos, Thailand, and Argentina.
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." Sergeant Carlos Rodriguez, the initiator of the sting program, arranged positive media coverage for Our Rescue, solicited donations for them, and upon his retirement in 2019, was employed by Our Rescue as their domestic coordinator.Survivor care
Our Rescue runs a non-profit survivor care program, providing medical and psychological services, education, and vocational opportunities to survivors. In January 2022, Our Rescue stated that in 2021 it provided survivor care in 30 countries. 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 a 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.ESD K-9
Our Rescue trains dogs to detect electronic storage devices and donates them to police departments in several U.S. states and Thailand. Our Rescue assesses the needs of the area to select which agencies it will donate the dogs. These dogs are trained to smell SD cards in devices including cell phones, hard drives, and hidden cameras. Some are also trained to provide comfort to victims.Dogs donated by Our Rescue have been connected to the arrests of individuals for child pornography.
Finances
Our Rescue reported $6.9 million in revenues to the IRS in 2016, $22.3 million in 2019, and $50 million in revenue in 2023. 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; 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. As of December 2022, Operation Underground Railroad had more than $60 million in assets.In 2021, CEO Tim Ballard was paid $355,000 in salary and compensation. In 2022, he was paid $546,548.
Criticism of operations
According to Foreign Policy, in 2014, after OUR's first operation in the Dominican Republic, the National Council for Children and Adolescents didn't have the capacity to handle the 26 girls rescued, and released them in less than a week."In a December 2020 article, Vice News said that Tim Ballard embellished Operation Underground Railroad'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". A 2021 follow-up article further criticized Operation Underground Railroad'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. Operation Underground Railroad's CEO Ballard reportedly consulted a psychic for intelligence on some missions.
A 2021 article by Meg Conley in Slate criticized an armed 2014 raid conducted by Operation Underground Railroad in the Dominican Republic, which Conley was present for and 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. 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. Anne Gallagher, an expert on the international law on human trafficking, wrote in 2015 that Operation Underground Railroad had an "alarming lack of understanding about how sophisticated criminal trafficking networks must be approached and dismantled" and called the work of Operation Underground Railroad "arrogant, unethical and illegal".
In June 2022, Vice reported that Operation Underground Railroad falsely announced on its Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as on Ballard's Instagram account that Operation Underground Railroad 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 Operation Underground Railroad or ever shown any of their videos, and that they were "taking appropriate action to have these posts removed". Operation Underground Railroad 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.
Media appearances
- In 2016, The Abolitionists, a documentary produced by Gerald Molen, featured the first operations undertaken by Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad.
- Another documentary from director Nick Nanton, Operation Toussaint, 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. 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".
- The documentary Triple Take was filmed about sting operations in Colombia.
- A feature film, Sound of Freedom, starring Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard, was announced in 2018, and released in theaters in 2023.