TAT needed a law enforcement training program that could explain a complex crime without reducing survivors to statistics or asking officers to sit through a conventional lecture. The material had to serve command staff, officers, investigators and civilian employees across North America. It also had to be accurate, practical and suitable for on-demand use.
Rocket House Pictures worked with TAT over a year and a half to produce five documentary-led courses. The finished program contains six hours of interactive content, supported by quizzes, additional resources and a law enforcement e-toolkit.
One of the pillars of our work as an organization is having high-quality, content-rich, and inspiring training videos that serve to educate and equip niche audiences on the realities of human trafficking and how they can get involved and make a difference. This is no easy task, but Rocket House has accomplished that goal time and time again, which is why we have partnered with them for many years. Gio and his team are responsive, efficient, well-prepared, and a pleasure to work with. Thank you! --- Esther Goetsch, Executive Director, TAT
The challenge: teaching officers to notice what is easy to miss
Human trafficking cases rarely arrive with a clear label. Officers may encounter a victim during a traffic stop, a narcotics investigation, a call for service or another routine part of the job. They need to recognize possible indicators, understand how traffickers maintain control and know how to speak with a person who may be afraid, distrustful or unwilling to accept help.
TAT wanted to make that instruction available online at no cost to law enforcement agencies. The program also needed to show command staff how training, policy, data collection and partnerships with transportation professionals can support an agency’s response.
The production carried another responsibility. Survivor testimony had to be handled with care and presented in a way that supported the training, without sensational images or language. TAT’s own media guidance asks communicators to avoid stereotypes and show trafficking as it occurs in ordinary settings.
The approach: build each lesson around people who know the work
Rocket House Pictures and TAT shaped the courses around interviews with survivors of sex trafficking, victim advocates, TAT trainers and law enforcement leaders. The production included Michael Krumm of the Michigan State Police, David Lorenzen of the Iowa Department of Transportation and retired Sgt. Dan Nash of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Over 18 months, our team traveled to record interviews and b-roll in the places connected to the subject. Additional filming took place at our Denver production studio, where the crew could control lighting and sound for longer interview sessions.
The documentary format gave each instructor and survivor room to explain the details behind the lesson. In post-production, our editors organized that material into focused chapters. Custom motion graphics clarified definitions, indicators and procedures without interrupting the speakers.
This project drew on our full-service production process, from planning and field production through editing, graphics and final delivery for TAT’s online platform.
The solution: five courses and a command-staff resource
The completed program covers five connected areas:
- Human Trafficking 101: forms of trafficking, methods of control and populations at greater risk of victimization.
- Engaging Trafficking Victims: Best Practices: first encounters, rapport-building and victim-centered investigative practices.
- Human Trafficking Indicators and Law Enforcement Case Studies: possible indicators presented through cases and interactive exercises.
- Unlikely Allies: ways law enforcement can work with trucking, bus and energy companies to extend awareness across a jurisdiction.
- Addressing Demand: survivor accounts and law enforcement strategies focused on the buyers who drive commercial sexual exploitation.
TAT can assign the full curriculum or let agencies select individual courses that meet their requirements. Pre-course and post-course quizzes help assess learning. The accompanying e-toolkit connects users with policies, service-provider information, technical tools and other resources.
Watch the law enforcement modules trailer
TAT also commissioned a separate command-staff video that summarizes ways agency leaders can establish counter-trafficking work through policy, training, partnerships and data collection.
Download the PDF: Prioritizing Counter-Trafficking Initiatives Within Your Agency: A Resource Guide for Law Enforcement Command Staff
The impact: a production built for broad, long-term use
The five courses remain part of TAT’s law enforcement program. In August 2025, the University of Massachusetts Transportation Center reported that the curriculum provides six hours of interactive content and is available through TAT’s platform or as SCORM and Tin Can files. Those formats allow agencies to use the training within their own learning systems.
The same report stated that TAT materials had trained more than 16,400 law enforcement officers and more than 2.2 million transportation professionals by August 2025. Those totals cover TAT’s broader training work, so they should not be attributed only to the five courses in this project. They do show the scale of the network the modules now support.
For TAT, the finished work became more than a single film. It became a reusable training program that agencies can assign, track and return to as staff and policies change. For Rocket House Pictures, the project is an example of how documentary production can support detailed instruction while keeping people at the center of the material.
Planning an educational or nonprofit video series?
Long-form training requires a different production plan from a campaign video or brand film. Interviews must work across several lessons, b-roll needs to support specific teaching points and the edit has to remain consistent across the full course.
Explore our approach to video production for social change, or contact Rocket House Pictures to discuss a training series, documentary or nonprofit video project.
