Category: Awareness

But what really drove the point home was the plight of two teenage boys, one of them sexually abused for nearly a year by four men who imprisoned him inside a squalid St. Petersburg, FL. mobile home.

Cpl. Alan Wilkett of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office said he wants to see the courts hand down the same tough penalties for both sex buyers and sex traffickers.

The war against sex trafficking is going high tech and the Tampa based U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking in Tampa has picked social media as its weapon of choice when it comes to deterring sex buyers. Natalie Kehn, who works on outreach for the group, said the nonprofit combs through thousands of online sex ads and messages potential trafficking victims.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) branches in Tampa and Atlanta launched human trafficking awareness outreach campaigns in recognition of Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

“It’s like branding cattle,” said Cpl. Alan Wilkett, who leads Pasco County, Florida’s human trafficking task force. “It’s an ownership mark. Branding is when somebody — a pimp or a trafficker — will put his mark or his symbol or his sign on his victims through some sort of tattoo.”

The city’s authorities are training hotel workers, security guards, Uber drivers and truckers to spot the signs that a person might be a victim of trafficking, since these are the people most likely to cross paths with them and have a chance to alert police.

Florida ranks third in the nation for human trafficking cases. The National Human Trafficking Hotline reported 11,000 cases in 2018. That’s only those who were able to come forward.

In 2012, she announced an aggressive initiative to make Florida a zero-tolerance state for human trafficking and modern-day slavery. From there, she forged partnerships with private businesses, community organizations and the Florida Legislature to raise awareness, teach how to spot the signs of human trafficking and pass legislation to strengthen laws.

“This happens to men too,” she said. “I’m working with a man who was taken to Texas. He was held in a pen and had to sleep near the animals. He was fed about every three days. He finally made it back home to his family. Now he’s getting the help he needs.”

With Superbowl LIV less than 2 months away, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced today in West Palm Beach that Florida will not tolerate human trafficking and she’s asking for the public’s assistance in identifying it.

University of Miami, FL. Miller School of Medicine students hung 3,000 posters in Wynwood last weekend to raise awareness about human trafficking.

After a recent grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime to fight human trafficking, the International Rescue Committee will work with the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center on awareness and outreach, as well as offer trauma-informed services to trafficking survivors throughout Leon County, FL, and nearby rural communities.

Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Florida says its frequent prostitution stings help curtail human trafficking. But cases are complex and difficult to prove, so few arrests result in prosecutions on trafficking charges.