All right, so we'd like everybody in the party if you could make your way over here for the presentation. We would appreciate that we love you. We love you all for coming out today to support this great effort stamping out human trafficking. I want to thank Alice for inviting me out today. My Services the coup de Chapin it is my pleasure to be your host today. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We don't have to after we get through with this presentation, we're gonna do a little hustle.
Today my my heart, especially, especially human Taskforce, members, thank you so much for making today possible. I'm planning department. I'm just going to take three seconds, so we can all acknowledge that
Callaway
able bodied assistant, Nathan Bailey together Miss Alice Johnson neighborhood legal firm Sandra rahmatan from friends friend of a girl Candice wood from alternative Linda Campbell from Covenant House Michigan Diana Henderson from Michigan and somehow sewed up and sold out. Emily Johnson from Haven home to Detroit This is Williams from Crimestoppers. So, Tina from Homeland Security Investigations at Thomson, our human trafficking expert and crazy Cooley from federal Freedom Project. Just a moment to Durban and I'm
just going to find out that I think that people need help. People need alternative as well. I like the name of her girl. Not everybody has to go to jail. Not everybody has to be a victim their whole life. People need help, and people the alternative. And I think that if we continue to do those two things, that we wouldn't make a difference. So with that being said, I'm gonna invite
you, thank you for the 75 for the opportunity to come into Your presence before you leave trafficking camps around the world. Not all of us being able to come together from the different organizations. Yes, as you continue to bless this effort that we have for you
I would be remiss not to recognize one member of the department leader
we're gonna start today with getting me up over
the bed right? Our first speaker for the day is going to be going out of town. And he's going to be from neighborhood legal services and the survivor Council.
Oh man, yeah, we'll get started. So we want to get the topic all the way.
But yeah, so this is kind of a taboo subject for a lot of people. But you got to understand if you don't have a conversation. There is no education here. is no defense against something that I don't know exists. So if I go to my life and I wrote an essay, I don't let my children know what this is, because this is so horrible. And I don't want to talk about it because it's so difficult, then what I do is I don't empower them with a defense. It's all part of what the survival Council does is we empower the youth with a defense. So we have the subject, we talk about what that looks like, what does it feel like? How would you know, if you was presented with it? Right? And then what are some things that you can do? One of the things we have to understand as parents, right, is that I have to be a trusted adult, I have to be a trusted adult where you can come to me, and that can tell me anything. And I'm not going to judge them, I'm not going to phone my face, or shun them, or make them feel as if they did something so horribly wrong. Right? Because the way that the world is set up today, you have the internet, you have PlayStations, and cell phones, and you have millions of doors with billions of people. So if I don't educate and empower them, that every person they meet is not their friend. And then there is one out of every five people you meet is a predator. Right? How would they know what to do when they're presented with a predator? So some of the things that we do with the survivor Council is we show are you that there is a way to use the internet and your cell phone and the PlayStation two games as tools? As a defense? Hey, I know that you can use that as a as a tool of defense. What is our 101 used to tell me? What do you do if somebody disrespects you online?
Or somebody, this
is what's going
on. Else.
Of course, a personal service. Okay.
Anybody else?
One of the greatest things about the hidden cell phones or devices, is they have a black, delete button. But if you give your kid a cell phone, or a PlayStation or, or a tablet eating, and you don't empower them with that knowledge, they wanted a post to do. So we have to be careful about what we won't disclose. Right. And I got some survivor council members here today, who are going to come and just give you their little spiel on digital harm online safety, and ways to have this communication. Alright, so the first presenter that I want to introduce you to is one of my one of my babies, they're all my babies. Oh, my goodness. But this is to shower. Nero sister out here.
Hi, everybody. I'm a member of the survival Council. I work with Alice and Lady T, Annie. And it's a couple of a couple more ladies that sit on the council. And we work with the young ladies and our neighborhoods. And one of the things that we do well, the three things that we focus on as education, prevention and empower. We feel like if we educate these young ladies, and we, we educate them so they can prevent some things from happening. And then we empower them and let them know that they have voices. So at any part anytime when they're having conversations online or even in person to prevent this or harm, that they could say, I don't like the way this conversation is going. No, this is something that I don't want to talk about. I'm gonna talk to a trusted adult and let them know that this is happening and what those conversations look like preventing them from becoming A hashtag, or one of those young ladies on those tables that we're probably looking for right now, or prevent them from going through some of the experiences we have experienced, that a lot of us don't want to talk about. So right now, it's about building a strong foundation. And a part of that is instilling in our young girls and young men, that you don't have to seek validation from without outside of yourself. And part of that is letting them know, looking in the mirror and say, this is this is me, I'm beautiful, I'm talented. And in giving yourself those daily affirmations and letting them know that they can do it, whatever the challenges are, because we all have them, just empower them to be the best version of themselves. And then sometimes we fall short, it isn't about the following short, but it's about quitting and we're not quitting. So, as a as a mother myself, I try to be, I try to be what I want my daughter to do. I try to I try to be what I want her to want her to be. So that means if I don't want her to have negative self talk, I can't walk around the house talking about, oh, I don't like the way I looked at it. You know what I'm saying? And if and when it comes to relationships, I didn't really know what a healthy relationship was until I got into this healing healing situation I made now until I identify with some of the things that I've been through domestic violence, human trafficking. And once I realized that I can be a survivor and not a big dog, that's when the hill is fine. Because we don't like to have these tough talks with our children. But we can actually prevent them from going through some of those same things we we've been through, I grew up in a generation where it wasn't okay to talk about what went on inside of the house. But we can't do that anymore, because now our kids aren't coming home. So in order for them to prevent them from leaving the home, we have to have these tough talks, and let them know and feed into them that this is it. This is where it starts. I love you, you can do this, you know, when they come up when that when something comes up. And it's a challenge that they they don't have to be defeated. The Quiddity is the definition. So I just, I really enjoy what I do. And I say I just use me, you know, and I really want to help save as many lives as I can. So right now it's about the foundation and planning.
Her next presenter that I have to introduce you today is Sammy, she is a student. And she is on the survivor Council. And she has been such a great force. We're working with the youth, and she's amazing. Graduate
I actually met Ellis through one of my professors, and say it was the first time that I was actually able to learn about human trafficking. Very interesting that it took 22 years to education about trafficking, when it's one of the biggest legal industries in the country and in the world. So I had the opportunity to be out these lovely ladies. Sorry, along with the Detroit
pain Council Task Force. I've been out of the game for a little while. So bear with me here.
My role and what I try to do since I'm only 22, and I'm kind of in that prime age range. When these problems happen, I really try to take on a very relatable roles for younger girls and the youth that we work with. So you know, my mom used to tell me growing up to watch myself, be careful. You never know. And I never quite got why. what was gonna happen to me? Why would it happen to me? And I would never listen. Because, of course. Until one day, I was at school, I was 19 years old, and I took an Uber ride with you my girlfriend's and I was the last drop off. And my Uber driver tried to come into my house with me and kept threatening me over the phone and kept trying to find me on different social medias. And so that's a little bit when it clicked that happened. What do I do? So I took myself and got up on my feet and I decided to share his name and his face with my entire campus because it's not just about If I'm not the only victim, there's 1000s of other girls that could find themselves in the same situation, if not worse. So if I don't say anything, I'm not only protecting myself nicely with not saying anything, but if I do say something, I have the chance to change someone else's life and make it the plan that from happening to them, too. So that's what I kind of tried to do with the task force McCallum is try to get my voice out there and make sure that they know that it could happen. And you don't have to be afraid, but you always have to be aware.
Awesome, awesome, awesome. See, see, you can have this conversation without going into the gory details of what trafficking is. Right. Um, one of the things that this next presenter that I'm going to present is so very good at is breaking down the statistics in the system. And she's amazing, I met her during a cohort, where we was doing a human trafficking specialist training, where they took survivors from all over the east, was it the north, Midwest, and they picked six survivors and six professionals were built in the field. 10 years of veteran, they put us in a room, and they said, come up with a solution on how we can get communities, partners, and parents to be able to have this conversation with us. And we said six months in school, preparing for what we are doing now. And so I want to introduce you to my cohort, my sister, maybe T.
Okay, it's hard to follow. But I'm gonna ask this one question. How many people here have been cyber bullied or raised? Had anyone to blue you threaten you or text you? Random, appropriately, so many people? I want you to look around. Earlier this year, I was at the UN in a session for people from 193 countries. And that question was asked, and every single person raised their hands. So how does that translate to you? So being the person who loves data sources, is statistics. I'd like to share a few things with you. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there's been a significant rise in extortion cases. The rise from 2023 is all day for 30,000 calls to 37,000. And according to the Michigan Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, they have seen a 30% increase from 2022. In terms of sextortion, and digital harm, and let me tell you this, we have children that has this tool, the tool has harmed and it also can be used for good things as the survivor counselors has talked about. So when you have random people who call you on the phone, or randomly text you, sometimes that's how they look for vulnerable candidates so that they can groom you to get victimized. So we have to educate our youth about these times. Next, I want to give you a statistic that I found fascinating, and that was the impact of a survey by Thorne, an organization that focuses on technology solutions to combat child sexual exploitation. It found that one in seven miners across the USA have received sextortion to sex toys to get home from to the to the fortnight. What's the other one? The mind? Yeah, Roblox that's the one. So with that, there's a special population that has had an enormous uptick and that is males and particularly Caucasian males in terms of the sextortion which they leads to other horrific things and suicides, etc. So I don't want to be daunting. But according to the Michigan State Police Report, they said approximately 60% of sextortion victims are 1313 to 17. When Alex and I did our fellowship, we challenged those numbers because we know that there's been upticks as, as young as eight years old. Just something to think about. But I'll leave you with this. The cyber bullying, cyber bullying affects one in five students, one in five students from the ages of 10, and up, and that's according according to the Michigan Department of Education. So we have to do as much as we can to educate and equip them with what to do next, how to find a trusted dog, how to communicate to their teachers to someone in cyber bullying, because that can lead to many, many previous acts in the commodification of human trafficking. Thank you.
Choose the wall and defense, defense defense game. Yeah, so you know, that age does take that out in here. Right? Because, you know, I think I was maybe four years old, you know, I wrote a book about my life. And, you know, there are many different forms of trafficking, and you talking about familiar trafficking, game trafficking, sexual servitude, talking about sexual exploitation, human trafficking. And so unless you know, all the different barriers and all the different things that come along with it, you might not recognize it, if you see it. So that's why it's very important to become empowered. And importantly, just to be a part of this, be a part of this conversation, stand in the gap for somebody who is being bullied and disrespected. You know what I mean? Like, just everybody can't afford new shoes. So why laugh at them, because they don't have the notions. So you know, you have to think about these things started there start at home, because classification is what has imprisoned and enslaved our people for many, many generations. All right, so I'm gonna leave that because we got a lot more detail. And we've got a little time. So
thank you, Alison. Council, thank you very much. I'd like to take this moment to thank all of our vendors who came out with the information around the Homeland Security Table specifically has some information on indicators of who's being trafficked, or how maybe you are being trafficked for someone you know, so you can just grab some of that literature. And as well, I'd like to specifically mention the Detroit Police Department, domestic violence advocates have a table here. As we know, I've learned unfortunately, and allergy is one of the people that helped kind of educate me on this is that a lot of human trafficking actually happens from families, right? Or people that say that they love us, our partners, our spouses. So with that nexus, done here, as well with some information. And so even if you're not being directly contacted or involved with, please take some of the information, you'd be surprised me to give it to you. Our next speaker is going to be senior law enforcement and he's on supervising special needed. Dr. Douglas Gilmore, from the Department of Homeland Security Center for Human Trafficking. He's going to speak on the importance of community collaboration. And I think that we kind of see some of that here, a lot of different people from different private and government agencies, because we have to work together to make it work. And lastly, as he comes up, I want to give him a special round of applause. Because he is retiring next week. And so, you know, most of us won't be retiring next week, but he took the time out of his day to come and continue to help. So thank you so much for your help. Thank you for him.
It is a it's a tremendous honor to be here today. I actually I can't think of a greater honor. In now over 35 years of law enforcement than to be here today for this specific event. And thank you, Ed, Lady T and Miss Alice and the others for inviting me to be here. It means the world to me. I grew up in Michigan. I spent a lot of time in the city of Detroit a lot growing up. This is where I got my law enforcement start. So to come full circle after 30 Five years to come back here at the very, very end of my career to be with you. Was a very special moment. I still love Michigan. I live in Birmingham, Alabama now, but I love Michigan I still love Michigan. I love everything about Michigan. Before I got to my hotel last night, I stopped at a store. I bought a couple of bottles of burners. That is that's my thing. Lady thinks that she's got me some to Detroit style pizza. Right. All the good things about the state of Michigan. So I it's it's great to be it's great to be back. It was actually Detroit television show that was responsible for me getting involved in the issue of human trafficking. When I was about 14 years old. Before we even regularly call that human trafficking and it wasn't the show so much. But I don't know if any of you here. There's a few of you. Maybe I'm not going to point you out that are of the same generational experience level. Just a kinder way of saying age as I am. And remember, Wk Diddy TV 50 I think it's CW 50. Now in Detroit, right? One of the few television stations that we got on our black and white television when I was a kid. But every day at one o'clock, there was a show that would come on called Bill Kennedy at the movies. You any of you remember Bill Kennedy, Bill Kennedy was, yeah, he was also the voice of Superman. Right? There's the Superman intro. Every day at one o'clock, there would be a bill Kennedy movie that would come on, there are always the black and white movies. To this day. I have a love for old films, because of Bill Kennedy. And every day that I was home from school. And I had the opportunity I would sit in front of the television at one o'clock and I would tune in to Bill Kennedy.
But one day,
Bill Kennedy wasn't on. And instead, there was a documentary about the civil rights movement in the South. In at 14 years old, I sat I watched that special. And I learned things in that two hours that I had never learned in school. I learned things that day that that taught me that there were entire groups of people who were marginalized, that were oppressed, that were abused that were exploited. And it moved me so much at 14 years old. That I said, this is what I'm gonna dedicate my life. I knew from that day forward, I didn't know at 14 that it was actually going to be human trafficking. But I knew that I wanted to do something that specifically help people who couldn't help themselves. My career trajectory was was pretty much set at that point. And we're not here to talk about Bill Kennedy in movies or burners or Detroit style pizza. I know we're here to talk about human trafficking, but human trafficking impacts every segment of society. We have been conditioned to believe through the TV news media, that human trafficking in this event is something that only takes place at large sporting events. It's something that only takes place overseas. It only happens to certain people. But those are all men's. Human trafficking crosses every different segment of our society. It happens in our backyards. And unfortunately, the myths that are perpetrated by the TV and by the media, they do far more harm than good, because they impact the way not only that we investigate human trafficking, but they hurt the way that we identify it and the way the public views the issue. And please understand that victims of human trafficking are just that they are victims. They're victims ever crime, they are being compelled to do something by force, fraud, or coercion. That they had no intent on here. And it's difficult because sometimes the victims of human trafficking that we encounter, it may look to us that it's consensual. They may even say it's consensual, they may even say that what they're doing there, they're doing willingly. But behind the scenes, we know that what's happening to them is not by choice. They are being compelled to perform sexual acts, or some type of labor or service, out of fear. Consequently, someone puts a gun to your head and tells you to do something and you do it, you're not doing it willingly. It's the same way with human trafficking. And it's no respecter of persons. Doesn't matter where you live, doesn't matter your neighborhood. It doesn't matter where you go to school, it doesn't matter the clothes you wear. None of those things. Human trafficking is throughout all levels of our community. I have worked human trafficking cases, some of the most economically depressed neighborhoods. In the United States, I have worked human trafficking cases in some of the most fluent neighborhoods of the United States. The only thing all human trafficking victims have in common
is this.
It's a vulnerability. And guess what? We all have vulnerabilities. Every single one of us has a vulnerability. Some of us are just better equipped. We've had better guidance, we've had better spiritual grounding. We've had the resources, the maturity, to keep us from allowing those vulnerabilities to be exploited. But not everybody in our community. Is that fortunate. And that's why community engagement is so essential to helping to serve and to solve this particular issue. I have learned in over 35 years of law enforcement that community engagement is absolutely essential in this fight, as a matter of fact, the Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Investigations, the legacy agencies that now comprise HSI we've been fighting this crime for almost 150 years. People don't know that. almost 150 years. Matter of fact, we hired our first female Special Agent in 1914, whose sole job was to investigate your my crap. That's how far back this goes. But from the very beginning, from the various early days in the late 1800s, where we began combating human trafficking as an agency. We did it with the community. We did it with nonprofits, and non government organizations. See law enforcement we can't, we can't handle this issue on our own. We're not equipped just in law enforcement to provide the resources and services needed across the spectrum, to solve this issue. We might be good at what we're doing in terms of investigating cases and arresting traffickers and getting victims out of exploitative situations, we can do that. But there's a lot we can't. We can't be in every home. We can't read every text message or social media posts. We can't monitor every relationship. We can't parent every child. We can't address or prevent every issue whether it's low self esteem, homelessness, addiction, financial insecurity, or lack of family stability that often times make people vulnerable to crap. We're not provided we're not equipped to provide the services that survivors need to deal with the trauma that they've experienced. And the long term care they need to rebuild their lives. We need your help. We need the community's help to get the word out to volunteer to make a difference. Justice is not just a law enforcement solution. We can respond to the cases. Typically, that's what law enforcement does. As we respond to the cases once the abuse once the exploitation has already occurred, but in doing so when we're failing at the front half of that equation, if we're not equipped to provide the long term care and services that survivors of human trafficking, then we're failing on the backend. We need the community to ensure a 360 degrees of justice, not just for the prosecution of offenders. But we need the community to help provide the long term sustainable care and resources that survivors need.
Here's what I know. I know that it is a joy. For the just did you justice is a joy for the just to do justice. I didn't write those words. There was a very famous king who lived a few 1000 years ago, his name was Solomon. Some people say that he was the wisest King that ever lived.
And he wrote those words. And those words are actually reported today in a book called Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 21, verses 15. Those words mean a lot to me so much, I have them tattooed on the inside of my arm so that every morning when I wake up, before I go to work, that's that's what I see that it is a joy for the just to do justice, those same words, influenced my grandfather, when he was in Detroit, law enforcement, and they've influenced me as well. And while I've always been happy throughout my career, I've never lost joy, knowing that my work
was producing justice. And you know what? You are the judge. You, each one of you here, here you are the just
you wouldn't be here if you weren't. I don't think that you just somehow wandered in here today. To come and sit out in the hot sun. You came here intention. You came here because you're passionate and motivated about this issue, and finding justice solutions for those that have impacts. And I also know that you're blessed. Every one of you, you're blessed. It cost you something to be here today. Maybe it was time maybe it was money. Maybe it was bus fare, maybe it was gas to drive over here. Maybe it was money out of your own pocket to help buy supplies, whatever the case might be. It's cost you something to be here today. And did you know that the very fact that you are able to afford to come here today puts you in the top 10% of the world's most wealthy individuals. Think about just the fact that you were able to afford to be here today puts you in the top 10% of the world's most wealthy. But I also I don't believe that we're blessed, just to bless ourselves. I believe we're blessed to help other people. I also know you want to work. We all by job, not just happier. Happiness is an emotion. Happiness is something that happens to us. And it's influenced by external circumstances. It's influenced by what goes on around us. Our happiness can change minute to minute. Joy's deeper, Joy goes well beyond happiness. Joy is attained when we mature to the point in our lives that we recognize that making intentional and personal, purposeful personal sacrifice on behalf of others is what gives us meaning and joy is grounded in the idea that we act selflessly and sacrificially when another person's wellbeing. We experienced joy when we put another's needs before her
joys Oh something dangerous. When you have joy, real joy. People want that same joy. They want to experience joy.
Joy is a conscious decision. We make that conscious decision to seek out intentional, purposeful, selfless sacrifice on the needs of others. It's your choice. And in doing so we choose joy. You may wonder what you can do. There are people here that can tell you exactly what you need to do to help others. How you can help support this issue. You can give it your time, you can give it your money. You can help the people at these tables. You can help make bags for survivors. You can hang fliers, you can lobby legislators. But at the end of the day, just do something. Just do something. Because you weren't just you weren't the last. And you want to set us up in a choosing to do something.
Thank you so much. foreign words? No, I have a condition, right? No, I have a job to do. So when you think we're gonna come to the park and get a job? Well, we did. And that's good. And I appreciate that. And once again, thank you so much, and congratulations on your retirement.
Next person I want to bring up I want to apologize to because I did not give her full due on introduction. So Valentina, please, please, please, please give me this is the Acting Deputy Assistant Director of the Office of partnerships and engagement for the Homeland Security Investigations. Wonderful. I'm our local police, the threat leads advocate, or member of the Council, and she's our federal partner. And she helped bring a lot of resources to bear today. So thank you so much. And with that, I will turn it over.
I just appreciate being part of our community, local here as well, I work for Homeland Security Investigations, the Office of partnership and engagement. And I can tell you that I get to many cities, many states. But here in Detroit, we come together, together and we address we're not embarrassed. We're not embarrassed to admit that there are problems, right? You talk about human trafficking, both sex trafficking and labor trafficking are your local police department, the police department is one of the best in the nation's hearing. They're out there, the adjoining states forces, they're not afraid to partner with our federal or obviously federal agencies to take care of the people of Detroit. And, and the community is amazing. You guys support them. You support us at the federal level. And thank you for that, because I think it's done said earlier, and congratulations, Doug, for your amazing service to law enforcement for 30 plus years. Thankfully, we were not afraid to work together. Right. And we're gonna we're gonna continue continue to combat this stuff. We just fine. I can tell you that I can tell you that the federal level, we are concerned, right, we remain concerned about sex trafficking, labor, trafficking, child sex exploitation. And all these things were mentioned today. We continue to look at ways to partner with our communities because like Doug said earlier, we can do it alone. Ultimately, when we bring about accountability, yes, there's going to be part of that accountability. Each and every one of you get so we hope you have the education to understand what human trafficking is for squad or worship. What that looks like. We hope that you the jurors, right, you who will make a difference in bringing about that conviction that you remember how we came together and we talked about what that crime is, and you will remember how much work goes from from the police from the prosecutors to put together a piece like that and I'll let Sarah, our special agent and HSI Detroit. Talk a little bit about that. But us coming together it's important and everybody says you could have been anywhere but here and tell you the truth, your Human Trafficking Task Force the children in Manchester and Trafficking Task Force. We meet after schedule, right a lot of us after our work schedule will them whenever we can. We come together. And today we're here next year, we're gonna be even bigger, because we're gonna put up a warrant. And we're going to continue to educate and bring people together to keep us safe. Right? Because one thing that I want to mention, I'm here to speak about the no to protect campaign. This is our nationwide campaign at the Department of Homeland Security, to bring about awareness about child exploitation, online child exploitation, I have a lot of resources in my in my table, you can get them online, we would like to come to your schools, to your community, to your churches, to your youth groups, to talk about how they can keep safe for let you know what we're seeing at the federal level, to let you know what law enforcement is dealing with, and how together we can protect our children. So please reach out to me bring up the agents will partner with our local police will bring out to whomever we ask you to ensure that children get that information, right. Because they don't know a world without being connected. Right? All they know is that phone, right? Most of them have never known a life without all I have, right. But my children have not. I mean, they were little but as they, you know, became aware, they had their phone, and guess what, they have access to the world and the world has access to them. And that's what it gets down to no number to protect. That's one campaign. The next one I want to mention is a DHS Blue Campaign. And that's also our nationwide campaign against human trafficking. We have a lot of resources that are free to the American public, these are your tax dollars at work, right? And some people say well, okay, so it's a campaign? Well, yes, it's an awareness campaign, but with every campaign is basically subsidized by resources, resources to have education materials, the ability to bring agents out to talk about this. So this is important because it's a recognition at the national level, that there are issues and that we can make a difference together as a community. Also, let's remember the victims, the survivors of these crimes, right? We continuously at the local level, and at the federal level, look for ways to support survivors and fund their needs. Okay, so I'll stop now because I know I want to give you all my colleague, Special Agent Sarah petty, who again, the two of us do a lot of outreach for for HSI and she's really involved on again, I just want to thank law enforcement in general for the amazing work they do day in and day out, to keep us safe in every single city in the state. And nationwide. Okay, so thank you so much. I appreciate you being on here.
Good afternoon, everyone. Is that all said my name is Sarah petty. I am a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations. Does anybody know what that is? So HSI is a federal agency, ATR RPI Secret Service, HSI.
I am assigned to the
Detroit field office, the Detroit field office oversees the for the most part, the eastern half of Michigan. But you just I have opposites? How will we the world and foreign countries all over the country, whether they're smaller offices, or the bigger offices, but I want you to understand that so you know that when information comes into us about human trafficking, or any of the other disciplines, you we're not limited to just extract, okay? Traffic is not just here in Detroit, it's everywhere. It's all over the world. It's in poor communities, it's enrich communities. It doesn't care if you're black, or white, or male, or female, or transgender, or have any other type of issues going on in life. As Doug was saying, human traffickers prey on vulnerabilities. And that is one thing that every single person that you can have a great support system, you can make good money, you can have food on your table every day and you may still have a vulnerability now, what type of vulnerability and how many to the extent that you have people that are unhealthy, that changes lives because of that. So traffickers prey on those only going to get a person into a state of being trapped. So I'm gonna be very quick because we don't have much time. But just you have a little more to talk about bases in gold miners. Get better spread. There's two types of human trafficking. People talk about different types of those. But those are two main types of right and wrong way. And you heard Doug talked about it and Valentina horseriding. What I want you guys to understand very quickly is that when it comes to human trafficking, there is a difference. Now we've looked at it with adults versus children, with adults in February, anybody over the age of 18 is talking about that. I want to show that one was a commercial flex entry, there was some type of force for our origin.
So I'm gonna break that down real quick. commercial sites does not have an exchange, and what is the first thing you thought, commercial sex, prostitution, it can be. There's nothing black and white about human trafficking, there's all kinds of gray, and it makes it very hard for us to run, know that it's human trafficking and to investigate and prosecute. Because prostitution, if you have an adult, that is doing it on her own, and in charge of their money in their homes and shops, and nobody's making them do it, that's prostitution. However, as an adult, if somebody first forced or coerced or me or there's some type of fraud, and she was emotional sex, that's not me being trafficked. Okay. So as an investigator, I have to show those, those different things. Labor trafficking for an adult. Not that you guys care, but I'm just going to tell you, you don't have to show the frog. It's written a little bit different at the sea. Anyways, those are for adults. So 18 years and older, I have to show one of those three, I will tell you, oftentimes, I see all three of those in a case. For a minor, I do not have to show or investigators, Detroit PD, state police, whoever it is that's working place, they do not have to show that force, fraud and coercion, if it is a minor. So in the child involved in a commercial sex act, that is human trafficking. So for instance, I've encountered in the last three years, specifically to 15 year olds, I wanted to do this, this is my boyfriend, I love him, he told me I have to have sex with these people for money. But I do it because I want to. They are under the age of eight. commercial sex acts human trafficking. So I want you guys to understand there's a difference. Labor trafficking for minors doesn't have that. That built in, but it's very easy, or I shouldn't say very easy, Nothing's easy. It's easier to show that a 13 year old doesn't want to work 16 hours a day, walk home and then go to school and love another, you know, work another 16 hours. So there are some differences in the laws. But I tell you, just for a quick overview, you don't have to get wrapped around about what the specific statute is. If you see something going on, and you think it may be human trafficking, there are tip lines, we have our tip line DPD know, I know the ordinance is going into effect about
hotels,
you can let us figure that out. I don't want you as the public to put yourself in danger. Okay, so if you see something that we always say, say something, Hollywood tip, if you are wrong, and it's not trafficking, come back, you're not in trouble. If you're calling with good intent. And we'll be honest, we get tips from people that are not calling to get that extra credit in trouble, or their ex boyfriend can do that. But if you're calling because you believe that this is going on what maybe it's human trafficking and can look into it, too. If it's not human trafficking, you might be another type of crime. And that doesn't mean I locked up the paper in the garbage. I'm on a task force. I worked with multiple departments and work with state departments that work with other federal agencies. We received tips a lot about labor trafficking, and it doesn't meet the statute because if you've got a level that you're trafficking, but it might be labor exploitation. So we have the Department of Labor, our task force, we have that piece off to that. So don't worry if you are not sure what to do. I will tell you if you do see something and it's immediate and immediate threat and immediate danger, please call 911. HSI is increasing throughout Detroit. You know, last week I was in Ohio for an entire month. I wouldn't have been able to respond. But if you would give an imperfect tip like better information, I can call people who can. But if it's dangerous, I don't want you putting yourself in danger and making exasperating the situation. Call 911 Betrayed ETSU, or whatever city you may. Also, I'll wrap this up because I know we got to keep going. So you think about it. I've talked about investigations and how the investigators are just as important. And equally important to the investigation, is there a victim centered approach and Homeland Security Investigations. Sometimes justice does not work the way we want. Not every bad person goes to jail. Right? We live in that world. Whether I am able to get somebody convicted or not. If there is a victim, or survivor, we are there to help them. We have a whole Victim Assistance Program. We have forensic interviewers that come in so I don't interview every victim. Miners we do not enter interview our forensic interviewer does, it's a different approach. It's a different type of interview, it's more of a conversation. And then we work with our non governmental organizations or NGOs, because I can't bring you into my home and pick you up overnight. So NGOs help with housing, medical, long term short term care, we also work with the victim's family if they're involved. So it's not just the victim, and you're out because you're the mom, or the dad or whoever you might be. You try to help the whole family that's involved. I do want to thank you really quick. I know this is quick, I'm forgetting a lot of information like thank you for coming out and listening. And I will close out with afterwards, if you want us to come out, we do presentations, we do training, I go to law enforcement training that I go into that schools are guaranteed and what are hospitals, you go to churches, communities, we can do it in 10 minutes, we can do an hour, I can build on four hour blocks. So just keep that in mind. And please, please, please have an open line of communication with your kids. Don't be embarrassed if that phone at any age is the right age, you can do an age appropriate conversation with a five year old. Thank you, everybody, for coming out.
Thank you so much. So it's very important that we see that everyone here, right. So it's not only the local police department, and also our federal partners, a lot of times sometimes we want to I mean, what is the federal government doing? Well, this is part of what they do. And they were very, very instrumental in making today happen. So we really appreciate that. So if everybody could just do me one favor, can everybody say no to protect? I need a little more participation from people in the back. One more time, no to protect. Okay. Great, thank you. Our next speaker is Miss Miss. Megan Lundstrom, Director at Polaris is the representative from the National Human Trafficking Hotline. And I'd like to as she comes up, I'd like to give her a special thank you because in our ordinance that we were able to get passed for the city of Detroit. Lot of our information was gained from their website, which is very, very informational. So and then the last thing I do want to say but what performance function speaks is, please, it is of the utmost importance that you stop at each table and get the information either for yourself or for Nick.
Thank you. Good afternoon. I am so honored to be here with you all today as a representative from Alaris. SoCal Lars is most commonly known for running the National Human Trafficking Hotline. The National Human Trafficking hotline has been in existence for 17 years now. It has a hotline that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and in over 200 languages. Since 2007, the hotline has assisted victims and survivors in all 50 states and US territories and 179 other countries. So, as you have heard multiple times already, human trafficking is here. It's here in the United States. And what I want to talk about more specifically, is that an extra year in Michigan, and what we know from our hotline is that over the last 17 years, almost 3000 cases with over 6000 victims have called into the hotline from here in Michigan. Just last year, the hotline saw 254 cases with 506 victims from Michigan alone So again, human trafficking is here, just like anywhere else. So what I really want to talk to you about is what we know, that makes a difference in the local community. First and foremost, learn about trafficking, learn about the National Human Trafficking Hotline. And make sure that you know how to get in touch with the hotline. So the hotline number is really easy to remember. But I would also encourage you to save it in your home. So that number is 883-737-8881. I did that on purpose to make it really easy to remember. But there's also a text line. So you can text to 33733. Or be free, suppose be free, and be connected with an advocate. What we know from 17 years of talking with individuals who have called into the hotline is that most people learn about the hotline through local events like this. They learn about it in their own communities. So even though it's a national resource, people are learning about it and connecting because of things that are happening in their neighborhood or their community. And they're also learning about it, because somebody in their community told them about it, and fed him you should call this hotline, here's a really great resource for you if you need help, or you need more information about human trafficking. What we also know from the hotline for almost two decades of answering those calls, 24 hours a day, is that most victims reach out and call the hotline because somebody they know, and trust helps them understand that the situation that they were in was not okay, and that there was hope and help for them. So again, sometimes the topic of human trafficking feel very overwhelming, it feels like something that's out there that's happening to those people. The reality is that you and I are best positioned to make an impact in in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our schools. Because we know our community and our community knows us. I also just want to highlight that all of you here are widely representative of somebody who is best positioned to support a survivor on their journey to freedom. And so, Polaris conducted the national survivor study just a couple of years ago, it is one of the largest research projects to date in the US. And this center the voices of 457 survivors from across the US. What we learned from talking with survivors, is that the most valuable people that can provide support as their exit has been our healing our therapists, advocates, service providers, the faith community, friends, and other survivors. And I want to pause there on that last one. I am a survivor of human trafficking myself. Alice was one of the first survivors that I ever met. And so in my own community, I didn't have somebody that had the same experiences as me. And so meeting Alice, and recognizing there's somebody else that share similar experiences, that understands it. But it's doing more it is more than just what happened to her was incredibly, deeply impactful to me and my own feelings. And so what I see here in Detroit, with having survivors involved and even trafficking efforts in prevention and response to the shooting, in advocating for changes in the community, that is so important, because that's survivors, we need to see that we need to see people who have journey, the same path as us doing things that are greater than of what has what has been done to us. And so I know that there are survivors here like Allison I, but I also know that there are survivors here that have chosen to not publicly identified and that's okay too. But I want you to know, that, that we know you're here and we hold space for you, and you are more than what happens. And so in closing, I just want to remind everyone here, you are the ones that are making the difference in the lives of those impacted by human trafficking. And you are working to combat that vulnerability and those risk factors and create a safer community for the sentence. Thank you so much.
Thank you, thank you so much. And again, extended a lot of our information we do depend heavily on their website. So I truly, truly wish they're available on their website so you can see some more information, as well as one more time stopped by the tables. And just time I'm going to bring up this to Mesa Bailey, who's the Assistant to Councilwoman Callaway and she's one of the main pushers I add our task force because she likes to beat people up. No, she does not. She does a great job of helping us to stay focused and stay together. She's gonna give us some closing remarks.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Good afternoon. Thank
you all so much for being here. As Commander Johnson said, I'm to Mesa Bailey. I'm the director of the Human Trafficking Task Force, as well as Chief of Staff for counseling Amanda lipo, Callaway, ami, thank you. On behalf of the task force, on behalf of the Office of councilmember Callaway, I want to thank each and every last one of you for coming out today for sitting into the presentation for bringing resources, we are really doing something special with the Detroit Human Trafficking Task Force. We have been incredibly successful over the year and maybe a year and a half that we have been in existence. We have gotten an ordinance passed in the city of Detroit. We have gone to Lansing to do a an advocacy day where we're talking about statewide changes that we want to make to help impact human trafficking. But also in the state of Michigan. This is our second stamping out human trafficking and demand. We had the same event last year. So we're doing some really, really special things. And I'm just grateful that you all are here, he witnessed the work that we have done. So and thank you for coming to Stanford on human trafficking today. But as all good things must we are coming to an end. So I appreciate all of you for coming out. I want to make sure that you get to the food trucks make sure you eat if you haven't already, all the kiddos who please get on the bounce house. We don't have the DJ, turn the music up and we're going to go to a party out of here. Okay, so thank you all for coming. Y'all have a good day.
And so just make sure you buy a ticket please step up to the front. We can make sure you have one. Thank you again
