When “Rescue” Is Rebranded: Compass Connections Takes the National Hotline

The Switch Is In!

After nearly two decades under Polaris, the National Human Trafficking Hotline has a new operator: Compass Connections, a San Antonio nonprofit with deep ties to child welfare, foster care, and adoption. On paper, this looks like a routine management change. But for those of us on the ground - sex workers, survivors, and people criminalized by “anti-trafficking” systems - it’s not just paperwork. It’s a shift in power.

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Hotlines are never neutral. They decide who gets believed, who gets funneled to police, and whose stories vanish.

History Repeats Itself:

Polaris left a trail of problems: survivors pressured into systems they didn’t want, “referrals” that turned a confidential call into an investigation, and a default assumption that hotline = law enforcement. This logic runs directly against harm reduction. Survivors deserve choices, not ultimatums. Community care, not carceral pipelines.

But to their credit, Polaris did the work to change. In recent years, the organization made a conscious and visible shift toward a survivor-centered strategy - listening to hard feedback, hiring more lived-experience leaders, and rethinking how power and trust function in a national hotline. Our long and sometimes prickly relationship with them grew stronger as they began to collaborate, rather than control. They kept real advocates on the phones - people with training, empathy, and the courage to push back internally when systems caused harm. It wasn’t perfect, but it was progress. Polaris continues to exist today precisely because it was willing to evolve, to repair relationships with survivors, and to center the people most affected by trafficking and criminalization.

By contrast, Compass appears to be just a call center - efficient but empty. More like a 911 dispatch hub stripped of the trauma-informed core that made Polaris worth saving. Without advocates who understand nuance, without survivors at the table, and without the humility Polaris learned the hard way, Compass risks becoming a hollow echo of the very system survivors have fought to transform.

A Built-In Conflict of Interest:

Here’s the kicker: Compass doesn’t just run hotlines. It also runs adoption and foster programs. That means they profit from identifying kids who can be moved into custody. So when someone calls the hotline, will Compass center their needs - or its own foster care pipelines? For sex workers and survivors who are parents, this is chilling. A call for help could become a trigger for family separation, not support.

State Control on Steroids:

We already know child welfare systems disproportionately target poor, Black, Brown, and criminalized families. Giving Compass control of the trafficking hotline risks turning it into a back door for CPS. And because Compass is funded by the number of children it places, there’s a financial incentive baked in: rescue becomes revenue. The danger isn’t theoretical - it’s systemic.

Who Gets to Count as a “Victim”?

Groups rooted in adoption and child welfare tend to frame trafficking solely as child endangerment. That leaves adult sex workers, migrants, and survival workers out in the cold. Their needs - housing, harm reduction, legal aid, decrim advocacy - are deprioritized. With Compass at the helm, whole categories of survivors may not even count as “real victims.” And when you control the definitions, you control the resources.

Why This Matters to SWOP Behind Bars:

This is not a bureaucratic shuffle. It’s a power grab that ties trafficking response even tighter to carceral “rescue” systems. For incarcerated mothers, survival workers, and families already under surveillance, the consequences are terrifying. One call could trigger police, CPS, and family separation. A survivor-centered hotline should prioritize autonomy and consent - not line the pockets of an agency whose business includes family removal.

What Needs to Change:

If Compass is going to run this hotline, we need more than promises:

• Transparency about how many calls are handed to police or CPS.

• Confidentiality as default, not exception.

• Survivor-led oversight boards with real power to intervene.

• Funding for non-carceral alternatives like housing, harm reduction, and peer networks.

• Decoupling from foster/adoption pipelines so the hotline doesn’t double as a referral system.

  
  

Bottom Line!

This isn’t “Hotline Gatekeeper Change #2025.” It’s another chapter in the rescue industrial complex rebranding itself as progress. The names change, but the logic stays the same: police first, autonomy last. And sex workers and survivors keep paying the price.

Our demand is simple: a hotline should never be a funnel into punishment. It should be a lifeline without strings.

We’ll be tracking this transition closely.

Want to help guard survivor autonomy in hotline systems? Join us!