Hey, welcome to Arkansas week.

I'm Chris Cain.

Today we're looking at two very different issues shaping our state.

Later in the program, we're going to talk about the surge in economic development and the major investments coming to Arkansas.

But 1st January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

And to help us understand what human trafficking looks like in Arkansas today, including how victims are identified and supported and how law enforcement is responding, we are joined in studio and we welcome in Sergeant Matthew Foster with the Arkansas State Police.

And Matthew, thanks for joining us and taking some time out to talk about this, to set the stage for our viewers.

How does the Arkansas State Police define human trafficking?

What does it mean?

So human trafficking, you know, we have the TVs, the Hollywood effect.

But here in Arkansas it looks a little bit different.

You know, it's everyday life.

You have traffickers that are hiding in plain sight.

And also the victims hide in plain sight.

You have you have children that are being lured, enticed online away from their homes.

And just a just a quick example is last year we recovered 204 of missing children in the state of Arkansas.

And Ryan here today we have 103 currently missing children.

Wow.

Look at the month dedicated to awareness.

January being this month, what makes awareness so critical when it comes to a topic like this and making sure that people understand maybe like what you said, what you see in Hollywood isn't exactly what you see in real life.

That's true.

So the reason why awareness is so, so important for us is because we rely solely on the public school teachers, SROs and people that are outside every single day that can report.

So our reports last year were around 100.

We would love to see those reports going up higher because we solely rely on individuals contacting us, giving reports so we can follow up with victim services and law enforcement.

And it's a really important to to tell the public and service providers is the fact that sometimes, you know, law enforcement not not be the right individual to go make it the first contact.

That's why we have so many victim services that we partner with that goes to the individuals first.

You know, the victim centered operations in Fort Smith, the West Memphis of identified 82 victims.

So what does a victim centered operation look like when it's being put into practice?

So the main thing is, before we even start the operation, we start looking at victim services in the community and start training those victim services to say, hey, this is our goal, the operation.

We want to provide services to individuals that are being exploited in your community.

And so we start building up the blocks through that and then we start getting law enforcement engagement.

Fort Smith Police Department, the county sheriff's office, same with Creighton County and in West Memphis, getting local law enforcement educated and partnered together.

And, then we just we come in, we have an Intel piece which you you said, you know, over 80 individuals identified.

So we have analysts throughout the state that assist us to identify individuals that are being exploited in that area.

It could be police reports, it could be post online.

And we just get together one night.

And so it's a not about choice.

So of course we're trying to provide services, but we're also giving these individuals choice for the first time in a long, long time.

And a lot of them say no.

And that's one of the things is it's okay to say no to us because we have a positive experience with law enforcement, victim services.

We're not going to arrest these individuals.

Now, if a traveler comes to the hotel or someone is exploiting these individuals, they will be detained and there will be investigation.

So I would just say the main goal is giving someone choice that they haven't had a long time.

What do you think of human trafficking?

Some may only think it happens in big cities, you know, because they associate it mostly with film, TV, etc.

But Arkansas is a place that it happens more often than people probably realize.

How widespread is human trafficking in the state of Arkansas?

It's in every every city.

You know, we were we were doing, we were looking at statistics last year and what's the legislation and, and, one of the things that was going on is this, does human trafficking just occur around the interstates?

Should should a poster be placed only along interstate systems, around truck stops?

In reality?

So we started looking in small towns and small communities and seeing where trafficking was occurring, what was being reported.

It was being advertised.

And that's when we realized it.

It is in every small town in Arkansas.

We should note that the legislature, as Sergeant Foster just mentioned, has been working on this issue and several bills in the last legislative session were aimed at preventing human trafficking and enhancing efforts to combat it in the state.

We spoke with Representative Robyn Lundstrom on this issue as she was spearheading and sponsoring many of those efforts.

Here's what she had to say.

There were three different pieces of legislation.

Mostly it comes about from groups like end of the Line and law enforcement.

We have incredible law enforcement in Arkansas, whether it's the state police, local law enforcement or FBI.

And they are really good about letting us know where there's some holes in the law.

And one of the bills was a bill by Representative Joey Carr, which I was a co-sponsor.

And basically it required displaying information about if you're a sex trafficking victim in bathrooms at different places.

So if it's a bar, restaurant that served alcohol, that type of thing, you would be required to put something up in the bathroom so that a victim of sex trafficking would have access to that phone number.

So that enhanced that or expanded that a little bit.

And then another one was act 366, which enhanced the penalties for someone who sex trafficking, a victim from a youth detention center or a foster care, someone that had access to use in a closed system environment such as foster care, homeless shelter, runaway shelter, corrections facility.

Those are already vulnerable adolescents, and this would allow a judge to add up to five years of an enhanced penalty for taking advantage of those children.

And then the other one was expanding just the definition of a sexual offense.

Believe it or not, sex trafficking wasn't in there.

So this actually expanded it to include sex trafficking and grooming, which is really a critical issue that we're facing.

So it may seem pretty basic and some of it is, but a lot of it is just staying ahead of the bad guys.

Kids need to be educated.

We talk about drugs with our kids.

We need to talk about sexting, sex rotation.

We need to talk about where they're going on the internet and be real honest with them.

There are bad people that want to do bad things to them, and they've got to be educated.

I think it's also critical that they report parents need to report.

Then there's other folks.

I'm a landlord.

If we see something, we say something.

Educating folks that are in business, whether you own a restaurant or a bar or you're a landlord and you're going in to view your properties, if you see something that makes you uncomfortable or makes you concerned, call your law enforcement.

They are there to help you and help you sort it out.

Did it even surprise some of our policy leaders in the state how widespread this is, and force them to take action in the last session?

Yes, in the last session, we did have a lot of, trafficking bills that they came and got passed.

And we're very fortunate, for all the support of legislators.

And yes, it was very is very eye opening for everybody, because whenever you have this, a victim service comes up with this idea, like, hey, the law needs to change here.

And we start doing the research and you're like, okay, this is why we need the law changes.

And then going to subcommittees and and educating the legislators on showing that this is occurring in the state of Arkansas.

Was it also one of those situations where you realize the law needed change in one place and then because it changed, there need to change somewhere else, and it kind of compounded into like you said, multiple efforts being made.

Was it one of those situations where it just kind of snowballed into several different bills to all work towards the same goal?

Yes.

In, in, you know, holding people accountable.

And so that changed and so many different statutes and, and like and that's really well, what you said is the fact that, you know, when you change one thing, you had to go across the whole the whole Criminal Code book and you're like, okay, now we don't need to contradict.

And and if we have this, this law passed today, you know, we don't want it to affect anything.

In the past, looking at the Human Trafficking Council and the Arkansas Child Abuse Hotline, they receive hundreds of reports a year.

So what typically is involved with triggering a report?

What are some of the things that that start that process.

So on your your human trafficking council, you know, we have a report line.

We have a report@arkansas.gov.

You can call star 277 and get me on the phone.

So that that is just simply people either want to remain anonymous.

It can be victims calling in for services.

We also have a victim service map where you can go click on our website and see the services that are providing are in your area, in your hometown, your county.

But looking at the the tips, it could be simply someone's seeing something at a gas station.

It could be a hotel owner like this.

Strange activity is occurring.

My hotel.

But looking at the child abuse hotline, we're looking for maltreatment.

So when things come into the hotline, you know, we had we've had a large number of reports last year, like you said, in the hundreds, we're looking for maltreatment.

Now, some of those reports are screened out in those reports are, given to analysts.

So we can see we can get more information and identify the victims.

Child abuse hotline, of course, deals with children, human trafficking counsel.

We give tips to the hotline when it involves children.

But our adult side, we deal majority of human trafficking counsel.

And that could be a victim reaching out to us and just community.

Tell me about the valor initiative.

What is it?

How does it work?

So the Valor initiative is a really, really neat initiative that we we started last year.

And the reason being is because we we seen our foster children, a large, large population of population and foster child going missing.

I think we're around 45 missing foster children.

Beginning last year, we had 184, 184 missing kids missing in the state of Arkansas.

And so what we did is we brought multiple nonprofits together.

Morgan Naig Foundation advocates for, children trafficking situations, and also our child advocacy centers and our biggest partner, this was the Department of Human Services, and we meet every, every other week.

And what it what it is, is we partner with Acce every time a child goes missing in the state of Arkansas, we get an email.

We didn't have that before.

So valor really push that on instant notification.

And so we have this group in.

The next biggest missing piece we had was law enforcement engagement.

So whenever we had to rely solely on our law enforcement partners to allow us to come and assist them, help us partner, locate this child.

And and so this initiative has, you know, 200 kids recovered last year, the year before that, before we had this initiative around 80.

Wow.

And and huge, huge growth in terms of success rate growth.

Yeah.

And I really have to give a shout out to my agency, you know, the governor's office allowing us to to build that out with a special agent that's assigned to it.

And and all these other state agencies that are, are coming together, you know, letting them taking off your armor, per se, and get jump in the ring together and in fighting together for these children.

And, so, like, like I said, you know, the numbers have we're average around 100 kids now missing, foster children were anywhere from zero to to five.

And I'm just so proud of the proud of the team and the and how we're how we're how this response.

Because, you know, a long time ago, but not so long ago, a child was recovered and just taken back home.

Or a child was recovered outside of state and just taken back home.

Now we have systems in place to where those child's get advocates, see the children go to, CAC to get an interview and just they get they get the support they need so they don't get back into that situation where they go missing their entire state online in a very concerning part that the public needs to know is all those children that were recovered, the children that were enticed online or lured away from home.

One third of those children were recovered outside of Arkansas.

Wow.

So they are they are being taken away from the state and they are also leaving to go be with the the the predator right on their like leaving leaving their home.

And that's why we we had this misconception that the children are runaways.

They're not they're they're being lured away from home.

Such important information.

Thank you for all the work you're doing.

A collaborative effort, whether it's with the legislature, with law enforcement, or with the local community.

But it all is centered around what you all are doing.

Thank you so much.

At the State Police Department, Sergeant Matthew Foster and we appreciate all your efforts.

We'll see you next time.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Coming up next here on Arkansas Week.

This week we turn to the economic development in the state.

Massive investments reshaping Arkansas's future.

Two major data center projects representing billions of dollars in private investment, but also raise important questions about community impact.

We'll get answers for you right after this.

Stay with us.

Welcome back.

Arkansas is seeing unprecedented economic development tied to data centers and emerging technologies.

Digital has announced a multi-billion dollar data center campus near little Rock.

While Google is investing billions more in a large scale facility in West Memphis.

Supporters say these projects bring jobs, infrastructure and long term growth, and some critics raise concerns about power consumption, water use and whether communities see enough direct benefit.

Joining us in studio today, Jay Cheshire, president of and CEO of the little Rock Regional Chamber, and Doctor Michael Pascoe.

He is chief economist with the Arkansas Economic Development Institute at UA little Rock.

Jay, I want to start with you.

You've been at the little Rock chamber for 20 years now, brought in investment from all over.

But this feels different historical even.

You know, when you look at this type of investment.

I can remember when we thought tens of millions were big, and now we're talking about billions with a B, and it's good from the perspective of the actual investment in the 500 plus new jobs and all that will take place with the data center construction.

But what I think what's often forgotten about, and we'll talk about the electricity and the water in just a second, but I think what is often forgotten is what type of impact that has at the local community level when it comes to taxation.

You know, people forget the when you have that type of significant capital investment, that then then means that schools, communities, counties and a whole host of other things are able to, to benefit from a new tax revenue perspective that had never really been thought about in the past.

When you look at a school district like the Pulaski County School District, in the case of, of, and after its first phase is finished in two years, all of a sudden we'll see a new 4 to $5 million annual revenue stream from just that one project.

And so we talk about how it's going to impact folks.

But it oftentimes we don't always talk about the positive impact.

And that's just one good example.

Michael, switch over to you for a minute.

You've been covering Arkansas economic development for a long time now.

And when you like Jay just mentioned, you hear the tens of millions of dollars and now you're seeing the multi-billion dollars.

When you see the broader economic development strategy playing out here, what are some of your thoughts?

Well, this is clearly the new big thing.

And, and big it is, you know, in terms of economic impact, it's relatively new, but there have been a couple of studies that have been done.

And, really, what we can expect is, in the first phase, the really, the big and immediate impact is going to be the construction of these facilities themselves.

That's going to bring in, a lot of employment, here in Arkansas.

We've seen construction employment, peak in 2024, and it's been kind of declining gradually since then.

So this should should give that a boost.

And then when we get to the operations phase, there's, you know, different number of jobs, not perhaps as much as you could find in a manufacturing facility.

But as much as 40% of the operating cost goes to electricity, and that's going to have interacted induced effects on economic activity.

And, certainly, as Jay pointed out, there are significant tax implications for these firms that will be supporting the state and local government, in their operations.

So, it is a really big deal, Jay.

And when it comes to the job creation aspect, whenever you're looking at traditional industries you've brought in before compared to data centers, what are some of the differences here?

What are some of the similarities?

So from a similarity perspective, obviously numbers any time, you have an opportunity to locate a project that's going to create 500 or so new jobs, that's a great thing.

As Doctor Packard was just talking about from the construction aspect of this type of project versus what we're used to seeing.

You know, typically 18 to 24 months is the time frame it takes to build an advanced manufacturing project.

In this case, because of the phasing of how these things work.

You're looking at five, six, seven, eight years of construction activity.

And so, that's a that's an impact in terms of what's different from what we normally see.

When you look at the types of people, the skill levels, the talent needed to operate these facilities, obviously, they're very high skilled folks.

In many cases, you're looking at an average of a $100,000 per year or higher.

And so it's it's a very high tech.

Obviously, it's driving high tech, but it's a very high tech project that will require that type of talent to be successful.

Tell me about the Arkansas Impact legislative package.

All the tools in your tool belt as the chamber trying to entice and recruit these businesses to come to the state of Arkansas.

So we worked with the state legislature.

The governor obviously led this, in the past session.

And I think what's, not necessarily been discussed in that conversation is when you look at a lot of incentives, first of all, Arkansas is never going to be the largest incentive provider for anything, which it's just not what we do or a small state, we're competitive in many other ways, and we use that competitiveness to win.

In the case of this specific legislation, it gives the company the opportunity to not pay sales taxes.

They're constantly re, configuring the equipment within these facilities.

And taking out old equipment and putting in new equipment.

And so, as Doctor Packard can probably, talk too much better than I when you look at a depreciation schedule for a typical, company, you're looking at literally something that looks like this.

Well, when you look at a facility like a data center, it does this because they're constantly having to, replace equipment that has an average, a short, average life.

And so with the ability to, to have a tax break on sales tax that they would, would normally have to pay, that's an incentive to the company.

But what I always tell folks is that's not dollars that we currently have.

We're not giving anything away, so to speak.

We're providing them an incentive to continue to make that type of investment here.

And we see this all the time.

Doctor Packer, I know you have over the years when it comes to try to find the right packages to get these businesses to the state of Arkansas.

Oh, yeah.

I think the advantage this that Arkansas offers to this particular type of business are really fundamental.

It's an example of our, comparative advantage.

We have, central location, relatively inexpensive electricity.

And so, we're an attractive location has been plentiful.

Land is as well.

So we're an attractive location for, for these type of facilities.

And as Jay was mentioning, they we see what they call a refresh cycle, where, you know, server life is typically only 3 to 5 years maximum.

So there's going to be a constant, flow through of investment, in these facilities.

And that's part of the employment that goes into it.

Now, many of the servers and, equipment are going to be produced out of state and just brought in, but at the same time, there's all the installation, maintenance and all that, and, you know, even if it's, specialty trade contractors coming in to, to do some of the installation work, they need someplace to stay and food to eat.

And so that adds to the economy as well.

So it it benefits all around the economic to Metro, I suppose.

Yes.

You mentioned electricity.

And that's one of the concerns that we've seen, when it comes to data centers moving into certain states is what impact does that have because they consume so much power.

How do you weigh that whenever you're going through this analysis of bringing these businesses in with the potential impacts still relatively new, around the country.

So not a lot of long term historical data.

And also, what do you think in terms of safeguards for ratepayers that should be put in place?

So that's a great question.

And and it's actually a question we ask ourselves on every project.

The reality is we like living here too.

And if we're creating, issues that are problems and obviously, that that hurts us and everyone.

But when you look at the electricity needs for a project like this.

Yes.

It's big.

Yes.

It requires more generation.

And if we look at what we're doing from, the and rightly so from a generation perspective, we're taking old coal fired facilities off line and bringing in, solar, natural gas and many other things.

We're in this transition of generation right now.

And so this gives our electric providers an opportunity to bring on a significant new company or new new, project that can help pay for that generation.

And even more importantly, to us as a ratepayer, the distribution, the transmission from that generation to the end user, the company's paying for.

So that is not something that the ratepayer, will have to actually have that burden of.

And so when you look at where we are from a generation perspective, Arkansas's portfolio is, is unlike a lot of other places in that we're very diverse now.

And, and that's one of the attractiveness, pieces of why these companies are, are looking at Arkansas.

But in the end, if we if we can't create, real value for the ratepayer long term, then it's not going to be a successful project.

So with the hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, we often talk about the generation, but forget how much it cost to transmit that electricity from A to B, and and I'll use our example in the report.

We're in the process of needing additional, power to not only power what we already have, but to power, what we've brought in.

And we are going to be bringing in this project, these types of projects give us an opportunity to have transmission, transmission built for us and paid by others that we ratepayers don't have to pay.

Therefore, continuing to keep costs at an affordable basis while at the same time increasing generation that we all know we need to grow in the future.

A lot of moving parts happening right now.

We don't have enough time and you're going to be happy about this, Jay, because my last question was, how many more of these can we expect to be announced?

Because there's been some recent announcements and more and more keep coming in.

But I know it's something that you all have been working on for many months.

Thank you for taking some time to share the information with us today.

And Doctor Packard, as always, great to see you as well.

We appreciate both of you.

Thank you.

All right.

That is all the time we have on this week's edition of Arkansas Week I'm Chris Kane.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We'll see you next week.