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Narrator: The FBI is committed to crushing violent crime across the United States and its territories. And protecting our nation’s youth from predators and rooting out human trafficking on American streets are at the forefront of that fight.

On this My Mission episode of Inside the FBI, we’ll meet Dan Costin, a U.S. Army veteran and FBI section chief who leads the Bureau’s efforts to combat crimes against children and human trafficking.

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Section Chief Dan Costin: My name’s Dan Costin, and I'm a special agent in the FBI. I currently serve as the section chief of the Violent Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Section.

I have stayed for 18 years with the Bureau because [of] our mission. It's right. It's good. We are bringing justice to an unjust world.

We all have seen the evil around us. We all have seen the good done by many people—not just in this organization—around us. And it feels good to be a part of that.

The Bureau's mission appealed to me after my time in military service. I was a tank officer in the U.S. Army. I commissioned in 2002 and exited active duty service in 2007.

The FBI really spoke to me in what the mission was—whether it was the counterterrorism mission, the crimes against children mission, or anything else—and that really appealed to my sense of duty, on one side, but even kind of the problem-solving aspect that I think I was looking for.

I had just started a young family in my time in the military and trying to find that balance where I could kind of scratch that itch of duty and service to the country and still, you know, be at home and be a dad and raise my kids. And this was absolutely a sweet spot for me.

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Costin: So, I worked counterterrorism for seven years. As an investigator, I managed an online, undercover platform and had the chance to go to Bangkok.

At the time, San Francisco was managing a crimes against children TDY [temporary duty assignment] that would send agents out to Bangkok for short-term TDYs to investigate U.S. citizens going to Thailand to abuse children. So, I spent 60 days out there.

I didn't spend a lot of my time in Bangkok. I was kind of bouncing around the country and working with a lot of non-government agencies, and seeing the work they were doing with some of these victims and really engaging in the victim-care side of things really kind of showed me the importance of the work that was being done in that space.

Being able to be part of work that I could really engage with victims and bring closure to those victims spoke to me. So, when I came back, I began the process of really badgering my leadership to allow me to move over to that squad. And after about six or seven months of making it known and finding opportunities to work with that team and participate in some of their operations, I was assigned to the squad.

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Costin: My first field office was San Francisco. I was fortunate enough to be in the Oakland RA [resident agency], spent my time as an investigator in counterterrorism, moved over to violent crimes against children, came to Headquarters for 20 months, went back to Oakland as the supervisor of the crimes against children squad, and then, from there, moved up as ASAC [assistant special agent in charge], still maintaining an office in Oakland before coming out to Headquarters as the section chief for violent crimes against children and human trafficking.

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Costin: Being in this chair, it's humbling to me because I get to see the incredible work that's being done across the country.

As an investigator, I had my little bubble and I think, in reality, I realize how mediocre I really was as an investigator. And seeing the effort that these agents, these intel analysts, these professional staff team members are putting into this mission is incredible.

I am grateful to them, I am grateful to be witness to it and to be part of that team, and to have any amount of water dropped in the bucket of the effort that they're putting in. So, I'm just proud to be part of this team, really.

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Costin: All of the work we do in the FBI is important on many different levels.

But the victim population in this violation—it's different.

Everybody, I think in the organization—everybody in the country—understands that crimes perpetrated against children is just a different kind of evil.

Knowing the good that we do in going after these subjects, in getting resources and care to these victims, helping these families who are dealing with this awful event that's the worst thing that they could imagine happening to them in this moment in time, really kind of drives you forward.

I think the victim population is really what keeps me in this program and keeps me involved in whatever way I can be.

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Costin: Any given day that we have an investigation, any given day that we interview someone or, you know, we bring some amount of justice to a victim—that is a significant and life-changing day for that person.

It might be just another workday for us, and we may not remember this interaction two years from now, three years from now, four years from now.

But every time we go out and we talk to somebody or we arrest somebody or we help a victim, it's a key moment in their life that they're going to remember forever.

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Narration: That was Dan Costin, who leads the FBI Criminal Division’s Violent Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Section.

You can visit fbi.gov/vcac—that’s VCAC—to learn more about the Bureau’s Violent Crimes Against Children program. Likewise, you can check out fbi.gov/humantrafficking to learn about our victim-centered approach to combating that type of crime.

To hear other Bureau personnel reflect on their unique missions within the FBI, visit fbi.gov/mymission. And to learn more about career opportunities at the Bureau, visit fbijobs.gov.

This has been another production of Inside the FBI.

You can follow us on your favorite podcast player, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

You can also listen to our show via the myFBI Dashboard app. Learn more at fbi.gov/dashboardapp.

And you can subscribe to email alerts about new episodes at fbi.gov/podcasts.

On behalf of the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs, thanks for listening.

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