SPRINGDALE -- Human trafficking is an old problem gaining new attention in Northwest Arkansas.
"This is something that's probably always been happening; we're just seeing more of it," Casey Atwood, program director with the Children's Safety Center in Springdale, said Thursday.
Atwood was a participant in a gathering of local, state and federal officials involved in investigating and prosecuting human trafficking crimes and victims advocates who work with victims and families to help them deal with the trauma. The group gathered at the Center for Nonprofits in Springdale to help publicize the problems and the resources available to those who need help.
The officials in attendance agreed the problem isn't new to Northwest Arkansas but has been garnering more attention.
"We've been dealing with it for a long time," Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett said. "It took a while for it to come out in the open."
Durrett said cases involving human trafficking, particularly those involving child sex abuse, are difficult to investigate and prosecute. He said the cases often involve agencies and offices in multiple jurisdictions and what begins as a local investigation may end up as a federal case because the criminal activity crossed state lines or violated federal laws.
Human trafficking is a crime involving exploiting a person for labor, services or commercial sex, according to the U.S. Department of Justice website.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and its subsequent reauthorizations define human trafficking as: 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; or 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, debt bondage or slavery.
"Human trafficking takes on many forms, and anyone can be vulnerable to it," said Clay Fowlkes, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. Fowlkes said the FBI is a valuable source of information to parents, teachers and anyone in the community who are concerned about or who have questions about human trafficking.
Fowlkes said investigators and prosecutors are constantly finding criminals adapting new technologies to further their activity and law enforcement has to do the same. Benton County Sheriff Shawn Holloway said his office has found investigators are in constant need of additional training and access to new technology.
Holloway said with predators using easily available technology such as smartphones and social media to connect with young victims, the Sheriff's Office offers training programs throughout the year, including offering programs to local schools about the need for parents to monitor their children's activities.
Durrett agreed and said it's difficult for parents to keep up.
"I know my kids spend more time on their phones than they do in school or talking with my wife or myself," Durrett said. "Their noses are always in their phones."
Atwood said parents need to do research and ask for help in learning what to look for and how to monitor their children's activities online. She said parents need to talk with their children to make it clear they are concerned and that they will be monitoring their kids' activities even when the kids object.
"Parents have to say 'That's my job, to take care of you,'" she said.
"It's much better when a kid is mad at their parents than for them to be victimized," Atwood said.
Gretchen Smeltzer is executive director of Into the Light, which provides victim services. Smeltzer said human trafficking, particularly when children are involved in sex trafficking, has been "a taboo subject" for too long.
"It's something that needs to be talked about," she said.
Smeltzer said anyone who has concerns about possible human trafficking can call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at (888) 373-7888.
"Anyone can call at any time to report anonymously," Smeltzer said. "It's important to call."
Lt. Blake Ringberg, with the criminal investigation division of the Carroll County Sheriff's Office, said people need to stop thinking these types of crimes aren't happening in Northwest Arkansas or they only affect "other people."
Ringberg said the population growth of Northwest Arkansas and the growth of tourism in the area both have contributed to the increase in human trafficking crimes.
"It's happening in Carroll County," Ringberg said. "We've got 28,000 people in Carroll County, so it's not happening on the scale of a huge city or a bigger county, but cases have skyrocketed in Carroll County."
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NoneJanuary is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Every year since 2010, the president has dedicated the month to raising awareness about the different forms of human trafficking and educating people about this crime and how to spot it. To learn more, visit https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/12/30/a-proclamation-on-national-human-trafficking-prevention-month-2022/.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice