- The Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center hosted a Human Trafficking Prevention Training.
- During the training, neighbors and law enforcement learn how to recognize and respond to human trafficking in our community.
- Watch the video to learn how the training supports law enforcement's efforts to combat the crime.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, Florida ranks #3 in reported human trafficking cases. I'm Kenya Cardonne in the Southwest Tallahassee neighborhood. Law enforcement and neighbors are working together to keep Leon County from contributing to the numbers. Experts say the key to that is education.
Robin Hassler Thompson, Executive Director of Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center - "The community having knowledge about how it looks, what it is and what to do is vital to stopping trafficking and to helping survivors."
Within the last 10 years, the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center has assisted over 250 survivors of human trafficking and trained over 21,000 people on how to join the fight against the crime.
Thompson - "This is how it happens. This is how the work gets done."
An interactive training on Thursday helped neighbors understand that sex and labor trafficking in our community doesn't look like what it does in movies and social media.
Thompson - "People were able to see how they might respond to a trafficking situation. It felt, to me, like their eyes were opened up more and they were able to, sort of, connect the dots so they could make that call to law enforcement or do something to refer a victim."
Neighbors like Shannon Perryman say they learned things they think everyone should know, too.
Shannon Perryman, Neighbor - "The profiling and how they look different, the different types of trafficking, labor trafficking, sex trafficking, human trafficking. So, those things really help me to better get an understanding of what human trafficking as a whole is."
It comes after a recent LCSO operation put 19 people in cuffs for playing roles in human trafficking in Leon County.
Perryman - "I'm very proud of what happened as far as the arrests that were made in regards to human trafficking in our city. I think that was a big help to alarm the community of what's going on here."
LCSO tells me educational training like these help make their efforts stronger. They're working to organize more operations for victim recovery, demand reduction, and trafficker crackdowns.
Rachel Keller, Sergeant at LCSO Special Investigations Unit - "Our caseload has jumped exponentially within the last probably nine to 10 months."
By 1200%, according to Sergeant Rachel Keller. But it's not an indicator that should scare you.
Keller - "The ability of law enforcement and the community to recognize signs of human trafficking, to identify instances of human trafficking, has risen. So our caseload, in turn, also rises. So I think it actually is a testament to the good work that the community and the Sheriff's Office and our law enforcement partners are doing in recognizing and investigating cases."
You may have seen these post-it notes around town. They are meant to spread the word about the different resources that can help neighbors in danger of human trafficking:
- If you are in danger, call 911
- National Trafficking Hotline: 888-3737-888
- Text "HELP" or "INFO" to 233733
- Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center: 850-597-2080
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