The May 2022 Report on Human Trafficking
The Elephant in the Room!
THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW
After over 19 years of working human trafficking cases I have learned several things that surprised me, and I found surprised most people. Some may agree or disagree with me – these are observations from my experiences with 19 years of cases across the United States.
1. When a bad guy takes your child away from home, no matter how far it is you have a truly fleeting time span to go wherever they are found and retrieve them- at your own expense!
There are two options: 1) let them go (bad guys likes this option- I find they literally wait outside the police station). Option 2) get your child charged with a crime and entered into the judicial system. When families do not have unlimited funds a quick trip across the country with one day's notice is cost impossible!
2. Most law enforcement agencies consider missing persons a civil matter and detectives are not assigned to the case. It is more of a paperwork type of issue where maybe an alert is generated in the law enforcement database. That is it. Unless a tip comes in there is no movement.
3. Most school districts encourage a parent to unenroll their kids from school when they go missing. This stops any help from the school district and the truancy court for helping them. Also, in some states an 18-year-old who is still in secondary school is not totally free of parental oversight until they finish high school.
4. Some law enforcement departments consider that speaking to a missing person over the phone is conclusively identifying them and insuring their wellbeing. It is up to the sole discretion of the department to decide if their efforts are conclusive.
5. Once a law enforcement agency has a case it is theirs solely unless they ask another agency for assistance.
6. I have the most success working with intelligence gatherers for state and federal agencies. They actually want the information to create intelligence products for the detectives and patrol officers so they may make informed decisions.
7. The best combination in my opinion is citizen / law enforcement cooperation. I love training community-based organizations and introducing them to law enforcement officials. At one such event, I remember the church group saying WOW we have never met an FBI agent before and the FBI agent thanking me because he had not had the connection to the people in the community who saw and were willing to speak about what they witnessed.
Win! WIN! COMMUNITY
LOSS FOR BAD GUYS!
If your organization would like me to speak at your event.
Human Trafficking is the elephant in the room- let's talk about it!