Former Buffalo resident leads anti-sexual exploitation movement
Buffalo High School class of 1966 graduate Patrick Trueman has been a leader and champion for the fight against pornography and sex trafficking.
Trueman was born in Minneapolis and spent his early years living with his family in Willmar. Patrick’s father, Paul, was employed with International Harvester Company and would experience relocation every six years. Trueman stated that the company wanted his father to move to South Dakota, but Paul Trueman wasn’t keen on the idea and instead went into business with the Welter family to establish what is now Trueman Welters Inc., located on Highway 55 in Buffalo. “Dad went into business with the Welters,” Patrick recalled, around the time he was entering his junior year of high school.
Trueman completed his undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota and attended Don Marshall Law School in Chicago, which is now the University of Illinois, Chicago Campus, graduating in 1976. Steven Szarke, a state legislator who served in the Minnesota House of Representatives, had a law office in Buffalo where Trueman worked as a law clerk for a short time after graduation. While in law school, Trueman became very involved in law work for the right-to-life movement. He, along with a few colleagues, started a public interest law firm dedicated to fighting abortion cases in court. The group needed a lawyer to litigate cases in Chicago, so Trueman moved back to Illinois in June 1976.
Politics
Patrick Trueman ran for the Minnesota District 6 congressional seat in 1982 and 1984. “Our family was fairly well-known; my dad had been in business, and there was an open congressional seat in ‘82. I moved back to Minnesota and into the Law Firm of Steve Szarke again, and later on ran for congress. I didn’t get the nomination in ‘82, but I did in ‘84.” Trueman ultimately lost that race. “I realized I wasn’t cut out to be in politics.”
Department of Justice
After the race in 1984, Trueman moved to Washington D.C. and began working for the Department of Justice under the Reagan Administration and was reappointed by President George H. W. Bush in 1988.
Trueman initially served as the Attorney General’s law enforcement liaison before moving to a newly opened position within the criminal division called the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, where the office worked to prosecute child exploitation cases, child pornography cases, and obscene adult material. “I learned a lot about why child pornography takes place, how addiction takes place with people, how families are ruined, how pornography leads to sex trafficking.”
NCOSE
In 2009, Trueman was asked to lead a group called Morality in Media which would later become the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) where he served as President and CEO from 2010 - 2023.
At that time, Morality in Media was a declining organization. Trueman worked to broaden the scope of issues related to sex-trafficking, prostitution, child pornography, and sexual violence against women. The organization moved from New York City to Washington D.C. in order to be closer to congress to advocate for change and lead the anti-sexual exploitation movement.
A highlight from Trueman’s work with NCOSE is the creation of the Dirty Dozen List, a campaign that holds corporations and mainstream entities accountable for facilitating and profiting from sexual exploitation by identifying contributors found to be enabling sexual abuse and exploitation. A spokesperson for NCOSE, Kelly Oliver, stated, “Over the years, the Dirty Dozen List has resulted in major changes among some of the most powerful corporations in the world including Google, TikTok, Snapchat, Amazon, Netflix, Visa, and United Airlines.”
One of the NCOSE success stories involves Hilton Hotels, whom Trueman states had been, “Heavily into pornography. Every hotel room offered pay-per view pornography videos, which became a big source of revenue for the company. When we started the Dirty Dozen List, we put them on it. They were one of the twelve. The goal was to shine a spotlight on how Hilton was making money off this. Families would come in and turn on the T.V., and they would have advertisements.” Trueman shared that guests of the Hilton would see pornography videos at the hotel and seek out prostitution services via Craigslist, some of which were sex-trafficked women.
At first, Hilton refused to listen to the NCOSE. “When we put them on the list, we told our supporters to call and email Hilton. We gave out the names of the top five people in Hilton. We told people to email and complain.” About a month later, NCOSE received a phone call from Hilton executives requesting a meeting because top executives were getting over a thousand emails per week. The meeting gave NCOSE the opportunity to shed light on how pornography can lead to prostitution and sex-trafficking.
Hilton had a program to teach staff members how to spot sex-trafficked women and sex-trafficking victims and what to do if they thought someone was being trafficked. Hilton executives realized after the meeting that a big problem was occurring. The following day, Hilton executives made the decision to remove pornographic materials from their hotel rooms in every hotel across the world. Hiton requested that the NCOSE publish this information, which created a domino effect, and other hotel chains began to follow suit.
Social media sites have also been placed on the Dirty Dozen List, including Facebook and X (formally known as Twitter). “Google has been off and on the list,” Trueman said. When NCOSE first met with Google they stated, “It’s not our problem to protect children.” Through the efforts of NCOSE, Google has altered its stance and has made changes in many areas. Google now has assigned people who are in regular communication with NCOSE. “We are in touch with all these tech companies.”
Under Trueman’s leadership, the NCOSE Law Center was founded in 2016 and is now involved in various high-profile lawsuits throughout the United States, acting as a catalyst to bring about the demise of the sex trafficking industry.
Editor’s Note:
Patrick Trueman is now retired from NCOSE and currently lives in North Carolina. He stated that he returns to Minnesota on occasion, “For weddings, and unfortunately, funerals. It’s always enjoyable to get back there, and if I don’t have to get back there in the winter, I appreciate it.”