How the Pittsburg Police Department uses data integration to solve human trafficking cases

KEY IDEAS:

• The Pittsburg Police Department struggled to solve human trafficking cases because investigators could not easily connect data across jurisdictions and systems.
• Siloed police data slowed human trafficking investigations, forcing investigators to manually search for and piece together small, disparate data points.
• Data integration helps investigators connect information across agencies, surface hidden relationships, and uncover critical leads they would not have known to search for.
• Using unified data, the Pittsburg PD uncovered key information from another agency, identified multiple human trafficking victims, and arrested a suspect.

💡 PITTSBURG POLICE DEPARTMENT (PPD) AT A GLANCE:

Location: Pittsburg, California

Established: 1925

Population: Approx. 77,131

Sworn count: Approx. 70

Total personnel: Approx. 87

Sources: PPD, PPD strategic plan, U.S. Census

PITTSBURG, Calif. — Human trafficking is a particularly heinous crime. In 2021, the National Human Trafficking Hotline identified over 10,000 cases involving nearly 17,000 victims. These crimes are highly mobile and often span multiple jurisdictions, making them difficult to track and disrupt.

To identify suspects and rescue victims, investigators must piece together small, often overlooked details from disparate sources. That information isn’t always easy to find. For the Pittsburg Police Department in California, siloed systems made that process even more difficult. Investigators lacked a way to quickly connect information across cases, slowing efforts to intervene in human trafficking crimes.

To overcome these challenges, the Pittsburg PD turned to Peregrine, a data integration platform that unifies data across systems and surfaces critical connections. In one investigation, Peregrine helped uncover a key piece of information from another agency’s system. That breakthrough ultimately helped investigators identify multiple victims and take a suspect into custody. Keep reading to learn how Peregrine helps Pittsburg PD connect disparate information, identify hidden connections, and solve trafficking crimes.

💡 KEY TAKEAWAY: When investigators can access unified data in real time, they can uncover hidden connections, identify victims faster, and disrupt human trafficking operations.

Why are human trafficking investigations so complex?

Human trafficking crimes often cross multiple jurisdictions. To identify and rescue victims, investigators must connect small pieces of information from disparate sources. Critical data may exist in partner agencies’ systems, but investigators don’t always know it exists or where to find it.

Sgt. Kyle Baker from Pittsburg PD explained why human trafficking cases are uniquely difficult to solve: “It’s a mobile and widespread crime. A victim can be trafficked across multiple jurisdictions all over a state. That’s incredibly common in California.”

CASE STUDY → How the Concord Police Department Uses Real-Time Data To Solve Cross-Jurisdictional Crime

One such example comes from the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force. When they announced a major series of arrests and rescues by California law enforcement, over 40 police departments were involved — alongside dozens of other public safety agencies.

🔎 WHY ARE HUMAN TRAFFICKING CASES HARD TO SOLVE?

• These crimes are highly mobile, typically spanning multiple jurisdictions.
• Investigations require interagency coordination and data sharing.
• Investigators must connect small, disparate pieces of information.

How fragmented data slowed human trafficking investigations at Pittsburg PD

Baker, who has worked hundreds of commercial sex investigations, has seen these challenges firsthand. He’s a court-recognized expert in human trafficking and developed a human trafficking course certified by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). But without access to unified interagency data, Baker still struggled to find obscure connections, identify suspects, and interrupt human trafficking crimes.

LEARN MORE → AMA: Unmasking Human Trafficking With Sgt. Kyle Baker, Pittsburg PD

Baker explained that first-level sweeps only encompass so much information. “If I run a search on someone’s criminal history, I’ll get information on arrests and things like that,” he said. “But to solve human trafficking cases, you really need small nuggets of information — that may not be obvious — to get a breakthrough in the case.”

He told us about a recent case he worked involving two female victims. He knew there was an individual exploiting these women but couldn’t identify them. “Normally, I’d review public information online like social media, and try to use phone numbers and photos to identify people harming victims,” he explained.

But even after securing search warrants for the victims’ social media profiles and trying to use information like aliases and birthdays, he still struggled to identify the suspect.

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Disconnected data makes human trafficking investigations more complicated and time-consuming because…

• Criminal history searches provide limited insights.
• Social media investigations require manual effort.
• Investigators can’t link information across jurisdictions.

How unified data helps investigators uncover hidden connections in human trafficking cases

To help investigators connect information across disconnected police systems, Pittsburg PD turned to data integration. Peregrine, a data integration solution, brought Pittsburg PD’s many data sources into a unified platform, allowing investigators to access interagency intelligence with a single search. Data integration solutions harmonize:

• Agency-specific data sources, including computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records management systems (RMS)
• Partner agencies’ CAD and RMS data
• State and federal databases
• Warrant data
• Social media intelligence
• Real-time inputs

Unified data platforms automatically surface non-obvious connections across systems, helping investigators find critical leads they didn’t know to look for.

💡 HOW DOES DATA INTEGRATION HELP SOLVE HUMAN TRAFFICKING CASES?

• Unifies data across jurisdictions and agencies
• Surfaces hidden connections investigators wouldn’t know to search for
• Enables real-time access to critical intelligence
• Reduces reliance on manual, time-consuming searches

How Peregrine helped Pittsburg PD identify victims and solve a human trafficking case

“Peregrine is my first stop when conducting investigations. It enables me to do first- and second-level sweeps for information all in one go. Rather than searching for information across all our systems, Peregrine gives me that data in one place alongside information from other police departments.” —Sgt. Kyle Baker, Pittsburg Police Department

Sgt. Baker started by using Peregrine to look up an individual he believed was connected to the suspect. What he found was surprising — a key piece of information from a call for service from another police department in the area. It included a nickname and phone number that Baker used to verify the suspect’s identity.

“When I used Peregrine, it gave me information that I needed — but didn’t even know I was looking for. Peregrine was the turning point in the investigation.”

That single data point unlocked the rest of the investigation. The result? Pittsburg PD pursued a multi-victim commercial sex case, ultimately identifying numerous victims and taking the suspect into custody.

WATCH → How Arizona Agencies Unite Against Human Trafficking With Cross-Jurisdictional Collaboration

“If I don’t know that call for service exists, how the heck do I find it?” he continued. “I wouldn’t have any reason to call the other police department to ask about it. With Peregrine, I found I could access information that was crucial to the case, even if I wasn’t looking for it — from our systems, and from other police departments in our region.”

🔎 HOW DO SMALL DATA POINTS LEAD TO BREAKTHROUGHS IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING CASES?

• Nicknames or phone numbers can unlock larger networks.
• Cross-jurisdictional data provides context investigators wouldn’t otherwise have.
• Connecting one data point helps investigators identify victims, locations, and suspect identities.

This breakthrough fundamentally changed how Baker will conduct investigations moving forward.

“Peregrine is my first stop when conducting investigations. It enables me to do first- and second-level sweeps for information all in one go. Rather than searching for information across all our systems, Peregrine gives me that data in one place alongside information from other police departments.”

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Unified data enabled Pittsburg PD to uncover a critical lead, identify multiple victims, and take a human trafficking suspect into custody.

• Revealed a key connection from another agency’s call for service
• Enabled faster suspect identification using minimal manual effort
• Expanded the investigation to identify numerous victims

How data integration transforms human trafficking investigations

Human trafficking investigations are complex, often spanning jurisdictions and relying on small, fragmented pieces of information. Identifying suspects and victims requires connecting details that may not be visible to investigators without the right tools.

By unifying data across systems and surfacing hidden connections, data integration fundamentally changes how these investigations unfold. Instead of manually searching for information, investigators can quickly identify relationships and act on critical insights.

For Pittsburg PD, this shift led to a breakthrough in a multi-victim human trafficking case. Using Peregrine, investigsators uncovered key information from another agency, identified multiple victims, and took a suspect into custody.

Peregrine helps investigators find what they need, even if they don’t know they need it. To learn how Peregrine can help your agency protect victims more effectively, request a demo today.

Peregrine is built on AWS GovCloud.