Lakota Software Solutions will provide its Fierce video-analysis application to anti-trafficking nonprofit DeliverFund as part of an effort to support law enforcement investigations into human trafficking and online exploitation, according to comments made during a recent episode of the ID Talk podcast.
The discussion featured Ian Caltabiano, director of technology at DeliverFund, alongside Sam Cilento, sales director at Lakota Software Solutions, who outlined how identity technologies and AI-driven investigative tools are increasingly being used to help identify trafficking networks, analyze illicit online advertising activity, and reduce investigative workloads for analysts and law enforcement agencies.
DeliverFund, a nonprofit focused on combating human trafficking, works with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies while also developing internal technology and data-analysis capabilities. During the podcast, Caltabiano described the organization’s approach as heavily focused on data analysis and identity reconciliation, arguing that trafficking investigations increasingly require large-scale analytical capabilities due to the decentralized and digitally mediated nature of the crime.
“One of the things we’ve done at DeliverFund is create the largest and cleanest dataset that contains illicit signal inside of it,” Caltabiano said during the interview, describing a dataset containing hundreds of millions of records and approximately 15 terabytes of graphical media tied to online advertisements.
According to Caltabiano, traffickers rely heavily on online advertising platforms to connect with buyers, creating opportunities for investigators to identify patterns across phone numbers, imagery, locations, language, and other digital indicators. DeliverFund’s technology stack is designed to help analysts connect those fragmented signals into unified investigative identities that can then be shared with law enforcement agencies.
The conversation also focused heavily on analyst experience and the psychological burden associated with reviewing exploitation-related material. Cilento said Lakota’s Fierce platform was originally designed for government investigative use cases involving large volumes of multimedia evidence.
Rather than requiring analysts to manually review video frame by frame, the application automatically processes video content, extracts faces, clusters them into identity groups, and ranks the highest-quality facial images for investigative use. Cilento said a two-hour video could potentially be processed in minutes rather than days of manual review.
“The answer is not just building another tool,” Caltabiano said, arguing that investigative technologies must ultimately fit the operational realities faced by frontline investigators. “Law enforcement is frankly overworked and under-equipped. And when I say under-equipped, I mean they have too many tools and not enough time to use them all.”
The episode also touched on broader concerns surrounding biometrics and privacy. Caltabiano emphasized that DeliverFund’s investigative work centers on publicly available online data rather than covert surveillance, noting that many of the advertisements analyzed by the organization are accessible through conventional web searches.
The full episode of ID Talk featuring DeliverFund and Lakota Software Solutions can be heard via the media player below, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
