Inside a Law Enforcement Training Session and Workshop:
Northwestern University's Executive Management Program
I thought you might be interested in what goes on in one of my law enforcement training workshops and seminars. These training sessions are not just quickie briefings but a truly hands on workshop so that law enforcement officers get a complete and thorough understanding of human trafficking and how to combat it. I recently went to Elmhurst, Illinois for a one-day clinic on human trafficking. I like at least two and a half days to train Law Enforcement but that is rare to get, due to their time constraints.
But this was a special conference with of course the purpose to train executive law enforcement officials about human trafficking. I am one of many instructors for Northwestern University's Executive Management Program. It is a three-week program of training for various subjects related to policing. I always feel honored to participate in these types of training programs.
At the Northwestern University conference, I was busy training a variety of law enforcement representatives including chiefs of police, sergeants, lieutenants, and detectives. The conference drew from law enforcement departments across the United States.
The training entailed a full day of human trafficking topics. The laws, tactics and disguises of traffickers, schemes, patterns, plans, missing persons, case examples of successes and barriers. Then we went on to interactive activities where we created specific procedures within their departments to address trafficking. This was one of my favorite parts as we discussed how to create civilian law enforcement collaborations.
I love this program. It is cutting edge and I am so lucky to be a part of it. I have enjoyed seeing it grow and I look forward to seeing what's next.
Did you know one of the most important and significant documents in human trafficking and actually is the key policy and law that we operate from is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). It served as the center of my presentation. Without it, we could not have rescued these babies from the diabolical hands of traffickers.
The TVPA defines the various forms of human trafficking in persons.
• Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age. When a minor is trafficked for a commercial sex act, there is no need to prove force, fraud, or coercion.
• The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.
I then take my group through a series of exercises designed to train them on how to recognize victims of human trafficking and what to about it. Very importantly that they should not treat victims as criminals and that they have several legal protections.
It is vital to note that trafficking is an offense against a person. It Involves compelled labor or service- exploitation. Traffickers often use smuggling debt as a means to control victims. Very importantly traffickers maintain ongoing control over victims. It is one of the things that may trafficking so financially viable. Drugs are disposable as are armaments. You use them and you need to replenish unlike the victims of trafficking who are used and abused continuously.
You are in a position to save lives. Here’s how!
Write to Dottie lasterglobal@gmail.com!
Do you know someone with a child who is sneaking out at night, sending inappropriate images online, starting to self-isolate? Refer them to our 55 Things Parents and Grandparents Should Know document .
If you know an organization or individual who want to make the community safer for victims and hostile to traffickers refer them here online training.
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My Mini Bio
I began working on human trafficking in 2003 and triggered the largest rescue of human trafficking victims in U.S history in 2005. I’ve led DOJ funded human trafficking task forces in Houston, Texas and Orange County, and California. Some of my rescues have appeared on Discovery Investigates CNN, CBS, and ABC. Prior to my rescue work I practiced Immigration law for 6 years as an accredited representative and I have degrees in Sociology and International Relations. And did you know that I love to ride/train horses and garden. My greatest pastime is photography.