James Held earned his college degree in Police Science from SUNY before starting a career in law enforcement in 1986 with the New York City Police Department (NYPD). While working for the NYPD, he had been assigned to the Vice Enforcement Division – Sexual Exploitation of Children Squad, which investigated cases of child pornography, the human trafficking of minors, and “traveler cases” involving minors. He has been directly involved in the investigation of several hundred cases resulting in the arrest and prosecution of suspects in multiple jurisdictions, both at the state and federal levels. He had received extensive training on the subject of the sexual exploitation of children including training from the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He was the lead instructor for the NYPD VED and has lectured throughout the United States and Canada on the topic of the Sexual Exploitation of Children. He was instrumental in creating the procedure, policies and protocols used by the NYPD and the five district attorney’s offices in New York City to investigate internet and social media based traveler cases. After retiring from NYPD with the rank of detective second grade, James continued his career in law enforcement with the Enfield Police Department in Connecticut, where he served as an officer, a detective, a sergeant, and currently as a lieutenant. He is a POST certified instructor on the topics of human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children.
