The girl looked out from my computer screen with big round eyes and a sad face. She was maybe 12 years old, an ordinary looking white girl with long straight hair.\u00a0 Behind her was a featureless background should. Text below her picture invited me to converse.<\/p>\n
I had stumbled on this website by accident, and I was shocked. My first instinct was to protect my computer so I clicked off. Moments later, I realized I had lost the connection to what probably was a trafficked child \u2013 only because I\u2019ve seen this very thing on TV\u2019s \u201cLaw and Order: SVU.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I tried to find that website again, I couldn\u2019t get back to it.<\/p>\n
I called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children but admitted that my information was probably too minimal to be helpful. If I\u2019d been thinking faster, I might have saved details or taken a screenshot of the girl to pass on to law enforcement.<\/p>\n
On other occasions, when teenagers came to my door selling candy or other items at absurdly inflated prices, I thought it was probably a scam but not that I might be looking at trafficked children. Traveling sales crews, as they are called, are another form of exploitation. \u00a0While sex trafficking is the best known, labor trafficking also occurs, involving both minors and adults.<\/p>\n
If you see something suspicious, there\u2019s now a national phone number with a specific mandate: National Human Trafficking Hotline, phone number 1(888) 373-7888, website humantraffickinghotline.org. You can contact the hotline by phone, text message, email, chat, etc. The instructions are on the website. If you think you\u2019re seeing an emergency, you can also call your local police or 911.<\/p>\n
The hotline is operated by a private organization called Polaris, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other sources.<\/p>\n
New Mexico has a multi-agency Human Trafficking Task Force, with the attorney general\u2019s office as the lead agency. The task force consists of\u00a0 local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutorial agencies, and service providers from around the state. Its purposes include both prosecuting traffickers and providing services to victims.<\/p>\n
The hotline reports that nationally, it has handled about 52,000 cases since 2007. In New Mexico, there were 70 cases reported in 2018.<\/p>\n
The national statistics of reported cases show that trafficked individuals were about 7 to 1 female to male. There were about twice as many adults as children.<\/p>\n
Sex trafficking was the biggest reported type, but there were also many reports of labor trafficking, including domestic work, agriculture, traveling sales crews, restaurants, construction and illicit activities. Sex trafficking victims were found in illicit massage businesses, residence-based commercial sex, hotels and motels, truck stops, pornography, and online advertising.\u00a0 Some victims may be persons from other countries who were forcibly detained so that they overstayed their visas and now they\u2019re here illegally.<\/p>\n
A speaker at a recent meeting \u2013 \u2013 who asked me not to publish her name for security reasons — said the hotline receives more calls from witnesses than from victims. Some of those witnesses may be casual observers who see something that doesn\u2019t look right.<\/p>\n
There has been, as one example, educational outreach to tattoo artists. \u00a0Sometimes the handlers use tattooing to literally mark their property.<\/p>\n
Prostitutes and other people doing illegal or suspicious activities may be victims rather than criminals. Our speaker said public awareness of this has been growing.<\/p>\n
Not all cases are considered trafficking because, for example, an adult prostitute could be acting voluntarily.\u00a0 But where the person is underage, every case is considered trafficking because minors can\u2019t legally give consent.<\/p>\n
As with many kinds of crime, you can\u2019t predict when you\u2019ll come across the opportunity to take action, possibly saving a life.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a phone call. Next time, I will be better prepared and hope you will be, also.<\/p>\n
Triple Spaced Again, \u00a9 New Mexico News Services 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The girl looked out from my computer screen with big round eyes and a sad face. She was maybe 12 years old, an ordinary looking white girl with long straight hair.\u00a0 Behind her was a featureless background should. Text below … Continue reading