For nearly 20 years, Cook County Sheriff’s Police Lt. James Draz has served the community through his various roles while working for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. In 2004, soon after graduating from college, he began his career as a Correctional Officer for the Cook County Department of Corrections which is overseen by the Sheriff’s Office. As a Correctional Officer, he worked in several capacities including becoming a member of the Emergency Response Team.

In 2011, he graduated from the Sheriff’s Basic Recruit Police Training Academy to become a full-time sworn police officer and has since worked as a Patrol Officer, Detective, and Training Academy Instructor. He also was a member of the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force and helped oversee the West Suburban Major Crimes Task Force.

In 2019, Lt. Draz continued to put in countless hours of hard work and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. It was during this time he helped create and build the Sheriff's Police Special Victims Unit (SVU), with a hyper-focus on extremely difficult cases involving sex trafficking, human trafficking, internet crimes against children, missing persons, at-risk youth, and crimes against animals. It was his dedication, passion, and veracity that led him to his current rank as Lieutenant of SVU, where he continues to combat illegal trafficking and child exploitation crimes.

For years, Lt. Draz has worked closely with local and state agencies across Illinois to combat these types of serious crimes. His undercover work for various case assignments even includes posing as an underage child to catch online predators who are lurking in the dark corners of the internet.

In this episode, we deep dive into trafficking and exploitation and what you can do to protect your family. This is a tough topic that everyone, especially those involved with children needs to listen to.

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