EDC president aids community by helping to catch human traffickers

Executive

Bill Cronin, president and CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council. Cronin has been in economic development for nearly 30 years, going back to when he was head of field operations for Enterprise Florida. He’s also held leadership roles for economic development agencies in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

Diversion

Anti-human trafficking. Cronin has been involved in multiple organizations that work to combat human trafficking. In 2019 he co-founded a nonprofit, The Human Trafficking Foundation, that supports non-government organizations in the areas of rescue, recovery and advocacy for survivors of human trafficking. More recently, he’s devoted his volunteer time to the Skull Games Task Force, which uses open-source intelligence to assist law enforcement in combating sex trafficking. Cronin is a mission support specialist for Skull Games. 

Mind the gap: Cronin, who doesn’t have a background in law enforcement, says he became aware of the gravity of human trafficking in 2013 while working in Atlanta, where he oversaw economic development. At the same time, his son had joined a youth ministry at a local church, and they were looking for causes to support. They saw a big gap, Cronin says, in both understanding and combating human trafficking in the community. “I found out there wasn’t a lot of groups dedicated to this,” he says.

Stay involved: In addition to the church group, Cronin worked directly with the Atlanta mayor’s office to launch an anti-human trafficking campaign. In 2016 Cronin was named to his current post at the Pasco EDC, where he also sought ways to be involved in anti-human trafficking causes. One group he helped launch was Operation Liberate in Tampa, where they held fundraisers to hire private detectives to investigate cases of people believed to have been ensnared by human traffickers. He also worked with a corporal in the Pasco County Sheriff's Office on a task force searching for victims and perpetrators. “I became a social matter expert in this with a lot of different groups,” he says. 

Above the fray: All that work led Cronin to Skull Games — a military veteran-founded nonprofit that launched in 2023. Named, according to its website, “for the way traffickers get in victims’ heads to wield complete control,” Skull Games partners with law enforcement to identify human traffickers and assist with community organizations to support victims. But they are not licensed law enforcement. “We are here to augment what the police do, we’re not here to repeat what they do,” Cronin says. He adds that the group stays above the law in its mission. “We want to be able to do this with public sources. This is not stuff we are digging through on the dark web.”

On the lookout: Skull Games hosts four events a year that are essentially (virtual) hunts for human traffickers. One was in Tampa last year, and others were in Huntsville, Alabama and Austin. Cronin attended three events and describes a scene akin to a control room in a Jason Bourne movie where a team of computer whizzes hunt for a spy. In this case, it’s 50 to 60 people in a hotel conference room, glued to laptops and using investigative skills and teamwork to hunt predators. “Everyone in the room is chasing the same goal,” Cronin says, “and when you get somebody, you get goosebumps. It’s really rewarding for all of us.”

Photo by Mark Wemple

Good results: In its first full year of operation, Skull Games identified 469 predators and victims, according to its website, leading to the arrests of 56 sexual predators. It spent more than 4,100 hours assisting law enforcement. 

Time well spent: Cronin says it’s hard to pinpoint how many hours he spends a month or year on this volunteer work. “There are peaks and valleys,” he says. “The Super Bowl (time frame) is very busy.”

Do something: Asked why this became his outside work passion, Cronin says it’s more of a why not. “It’s the simple adage of ‘if not us, who?’” He adds: “These are our kids. (These predators) are grooming our kids. Some of these people spend years grooming them. These are people who prey on our kids.”

Grim discovery: While helping police catch a predator is a rush, and a relief, Cronin says one thing, beyond the trafficking itself, he’s repulsed by is the amount of people he has discovered who “look the other way” when evidence of trafficking is right in front of them. That includes cab drivers, strip bar owners, hotel owners and more. “Sometimes it’s a police department that doesn’t even chase down leads,” he says. 

Get started: Cronin says many people avoid this kind of work because it can be overwhelming and intimidating. “Most people say ‘I don’t know where to begin,’” he says. “There’s so many I don't knows. When I hear something like that it encourages me to find out.” He also learned to balance passion with purpose. “You have to have a real heart for this work,” he says, “but you also have to look at it objectively to really figure out what is going on.”