A group of Dallas area organizations gathered on Tuesday to present a documentary about the international anti-child-trafficking efforts of Operation Underground Railroad.
The movie, titled Triple Take, shows the true events that inspired the recent blockbuster movie Sound of Freedom, which has brought international attention to the issue of child sex trafficking.
Hosted at Look Cinema in Dallas, the Triple Take showing sold out with a sizable waitlist to get in. Produced in 2019, the documentary tells the story of three simultaneous anti-child-trafficking sting operations conducted in Colombia. The movie includes interviews with agents, operatives, and law enforcement personnel and videos from the operations themselves.
Matt Osborne, president of Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), told the crowd, “I believe that when you watch this, you will see just how accurately portrayed and depicted Sound of Freedom was based on Triple Take.”
As reported by The Dallas Express, several critics have denounced Sound of Freedom. For example, Rolling Stone writer Miles Klee claimed that OUR founder Tim Ballard and actor Jim Caviezel had been “fomenting moral panic for years over this grossly exaggerated ‘epidemic’ of child sex-trafficking, much of it funneling people into conspiracist rabbit holes and QAnon communities.”
OUR’s Osborne, who was personally undercover in the missions in Colombia, and others involved with the rescue operations have stood by the veracity of the story and the seriousness of child trafficking. He told the audience at the Triple Take screening, “Once you see, you can’t unsee. Once you know, you can’t unknow.”
Since OUR began in 2013, it has assisted in over 1,000 operations that liberated 6,000 survivors and led to the arrests of more than 4,000 predators.
The operation documented in Triple Take was one of the largest, if not the largest, events of its kind. Since then, the organization has worked in many countries around the world.
In addition to conducting rescues, OUR also “provides tools, funding, training, and technology” to law enforcement partners, Osborne explained. “Whether it’s local Dallas, whether it’s a small town, whether it’s international … that’s how we can fight this together.”
“We provide support in all 50 U.S. states and over 40 countries around the world,” he noted.
Whenever OUR does an operation, the organization works closely with local authorities in order to ensure that predators are arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The organization also places a heavy emphasis on aftercare for the survivors of human trafficking.
The event was sponsored by a number of local groups, including Dallas Jewish Conservatives, Collin County Conservative Republicans, A Better Dallas, and Park Cities Republican Women (PCRW).
Elle Cole, president of PCRW, told The Dallas Express that the organization partnered with OUR and other community organizations to raise awareness of the issue of human trafficking.
“Because we felt like sex trafficking is modern-day slavery,” she said, explaining that PCRW wanted to “give a voice and a platform … to combat that horrific thing that is happening. It’s an initiative that we felt was really important.”
When asked about people’s reaction to learning about the extent of human trafficking, Cole said, “The response has been phenomenal. They’re really shocked.”
“Whenever you shine a light on it and show how it will affect them … they’re shocked, then they get angry, then they take action,” she noted. “People are not willing to look the other way.”
PCRW will be taking action on the issue as well, and “this year, moving forward, we’re going to be talking with legislators about laws that can be passed.”
“PCRW is really involved,” Cole added. “There’s a lot that matters … there’s a protective nature to protect the innocence of children.”
