Who Is Timothy Ballard, Jim Caviezel’s Character In Sound of Freedom?
Sound of Freedom is a 2023 film directed by Alejandro Monteverde, who also co-wrote the script with Rod Barr. The movie stars Jim Caviezel as Timothy Ballard, a Special Agent for the Department of Homeland Security and founder and CEO of Operation Underground Railroad, an anti-sex trafficking nonprofit organization. Since the movie focuses on Ballard we decided to pose and answer the question – Who is Timothy Ballard?
Timothy Ballard’s Early Life
Timothy Ballard was born in Provo, Utah but grew up in California. He went to school at La Cañada High School, which is located in La Cañada Flintridge, California, a town at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Raised in a Mormon home and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ballard’s college studies took him to Brigham Young University in Utah.
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and political science, Ballard then moved on to the Monterey Institute of International Studies where he graduated summa cum laude while grabbing his Master of Arts in international politics. His college work would be key in his future endeavors.
Timothy Ballard’s Federal Service
Timothy Ballard took his college experience with him to the Central Intelligence Agency. There he was assigned to anti-terrorism that focused on Latin America.
Timothy Ballard was an agent for the Department of Homeland Security. With Homeland Security, before an assignment to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
After spending time with the CIA, Ballard became a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security. With Homeland Security, he was assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. It would be this job that changed Ballard’s fundamental outlook on life.
As a Homeland Security special agent, Ballard worked undercover for the U.S. Child Sex Tourism Jump Team. Assigned to work in a number of different foreign countries, Ballard was successful in infiltrating child trafficking organizations.
His time working undercover was well spent. Ballard was able to help take down numerous operations and rescued many children from sex slavery. Among the things he was able to accomplish during this time was the training of hundreds of U.S. and international agents on how to rescue these exploited children. He also became an expert on file-sharing networks where traffickers and pedophiles share their child pornography.
Doing Too Little Forces Timothy Ballard to Quit His Job
Although Timothy Ballard felt he was doing well working with Homeland Security, things eventually came to a head for him when he found himself in an untenable situation.
According to Ballard, he was working two cases in different locations – one in Haiti, the other in Columbia – when his bosses told him to pack it up. “I was told, ‘Come home,’ on both of them,” says Ballard. “They were both major cases, a significant hit against human traffickers would have taken place.”
How does one walk away from something so important? Well, for Ballard there was only one thing he could do. “There I am, thinking, ‘They’re asking me to come home once again, and I’m not gonna do it. I’m gonna stay, and that means I have to quit my job.”
It was a huge risk for Ballard, and not just because he felt he needed to complete the mission he was on. Back home, Timothy Ballard’s wife, Katherine, was raising their six children. As an FYI, today the Ballards have nine children, two of which they adopted after Tim rescued them from human traffickers.
Ballard did complete both of his missions in Haiti and Columbia but was now looking at unemployment. Shortly after returning to the United States, he found the answer to all of his problems.
Operation Underground Railroad
In 2013, Timothy Ballard founded Operation Underground Railroad, a nonprofit organization bent on stopping child sex trafficking. The group focuses its efforts on the hundreds of thousands of children each year who are exposed to sex trafficking.
The group has conducted numerous sting operations while donating money and technology to law enforcement agencies to assist them in their efforts to combat these horrific crimes.
Some of the successful operations that Timothy Ballard’s organization has been involved in include a 2014 sting operation in Cartagena, Columbia. Another one came in 2022 where the group supplied investigative and undercover support.
These efforts led to the arrest of Nelson Maatman and Marthijn Uittenbogaard, pro-pedophile activists. Subsequently, the two men were able to flee to different countries. Also in 2022, the organization was responsible for the arrests of 14 suspects of child sex trafficking in the Dominican Republic.
Operation Underground Railroad not only is in the middle of the action when it comes to stopping child sex trafficking, but they also have an aftercare program. Here, they provide medical and psychological services for survivors and also provide education and vocational opportunities when the survivors are ready to take that step.
According to recent reports, Timothy Ballard has stepped away from Operation Underground Railroad and now is contributing his time to The Nazarene Fund, an organization backed by Glenn Beck.
Along with the organizations Ballard has been involved with, he has appeared numerous times in front of Congress. He has testified on human rights and the rescue of trafficking victims. He has also stood in front of Congress to testify on the US-Mexico border security troubles and how the lack of it has led to more child sex trafficking.
Is Sound Of Freedom Accurate?
Well, it is Hollywood we are talking about here. In just about any film based on a real-life story, certain liberties are taken and that is no different with Sound of Freedom.
According to Timothy Ballard, though, the changes weren’t as drastic as some may believe. For movie-running time, obviously, things had to be pared back. One instance that Ballard and his team wanted to clarify was the fact that he has never killed anyone.
(SPOILER ALERT) In the film, it shows Jim Caviezel’s Timothy Ballard killing a man in order to rescue a kidnapped child. In reality, Ballard says he’s never killed anyone. On the Operation Underground Railroad website, they even clarify: “Tim Ballard has never killed anyone, contrary to what is depicted in the film.”
Timothy Ballard is an Author as Well
If this isn’t enough for Timothy Ballard, he is also the author of over 10 books. These include Slave Stealers: True Accounts of Slave Rescues – Then and Now, and The American Covenant: One Nation Under God Vol.1 and Vol. 2.
