Welcome to Perspectives online and on air from WFSU Public Media I'm Tom Flanigan this program using zoom pre-recorded on Tuesday January 5th for playback on Thursday January 7th the show appearing on both WFSU fm and our WFSU Public Media facebook page well welcome to the first Perspectives of a brand new year which we hope with all sincerity is a vast improvement over the year that preceded it here and we hope that you and yours had a a restful relaxing and a safe holiday as well you know this is national human trafficking awareness month the month of January and in past years particularly in our area that observance sometimes seemed I don't know a little bit academic maybe um we had trouble I think really bringing home the severity and the pervasiveness of the problem because there wasn't that much to really identify with locally well um that kind of came to a halt this past November Tallahassee police and other law enforcement agencies dropped a real bombshell by announcing the results of a two-year-long probe called operation stolen innocence and that involved if you didn't hear a girl who was just 13 when she became the victim of horrendous abuse at the hands of multiple adults dozens and dozens of people allegedly including some well-known and previously pretty well respected people in our community and ultimately more than 170 people were arrested and charged in the case now we're going to talk about that and the many other ways that human trafficking hits close to home over the course of the hour and we have a terrific panel to bring us up to date on just what is going on and why it impacts all of us okay so let's go around meet the panel uh we welcome back uh an old and dear friend and the persona of Robin Hassler Thompson executive director of the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center a busy lady for sure Robin it is good to see you again so wonderful to be back Tom and thank you again for helping us kick off this month I don't know how many years it's been several years now but it's really great to be back well it's it's a regular part of our uh emphasis or outreach I think Robin just because again it is a problem that continues and does not go away and we just have to keep reminding ourselves that this is something again that impacts virtually everybody so uh thanks on that score here well we just talked about uh some law enforcement components and the judicial system and all that so an attorney with holland a knight and a major factor in the prosecution of human trafficking in Florida is Barbara Martinez and she joins us here today as well Barbara it's good to see you and thank you for coming on well thank you so much for having me and like Robin mentioned it is great that you're really highlighting this very important issue well it is our pleasure for sure Barbara can't wait to delve into this issue in more depth with you here and again bringing it all home why not bring in the chair of the Leon County board of county commissioners uh Rick miner and uh commissioner good to see you happy new year and I i love the background that you have there you're in the office today aren't you I am I am um yes we're we've got a scaled-down operation here at the county but uh I definitely are in the office today I wanted to say happy new year to you too Tom and Robin and ms Martinez and everybody that's listening it's uh great to be here um and really good to be here about a very important issue that we're talking about today well we'll go ahead and get into our definition of terms then again um Robin Hassler Thompson for the benefit of folks who maybe don't uh understand the extent of that problem in Florida and here in north Florida where do we where do we stand here in I guess comparison to the rest of the nation when it comes to uh human trafficking in north Florida where we are and the state of Florida as a whole yeah Florida has the dubious and unfortunate distinction still of being third in the nation when it comes to the number of human trafficking cases that are called into our national human trafficking hotline so we know that we are ground zero at so many levels for both sex and labor trafficking um what we've seen around the state is that uh sex trafficking cases and labor trafficking cases have particularly we've been seeing increases of labor trafficking cases in our state if you go to that hotline that has the national human trafficking information on it you will see that agriculture housekeeping hotel all those industries are places where we're seeing also increases and then in our area as well you mentioned operation stolen innocence so that is one way that that this issue does come to the fore is through arrest and prosecution so we know it's happening but like always Tom this is a a very hidden phenomenon it it is happening right under our noses um whether it's in hotels or in the fields or in in other places you know we've we've seen how we're so much more isolated because of COVID and one of the things locally that dcf has told us is that the number of cases of reported child abuse has gone down it's starting to go up now but we've had a lot of these cases we fear of human trafficking not come to the attention of authorities because of this intersection with coven 19.

Barbara Martinez that puts it kind of in your bailiwick right away when we talk about how seriously law enforcement organizations take this crime because it can be very hard to detect and I presume difficult to prosecute because it's like you go into a long abandoned structure and you open the door and everything in there scatters uh it kind of is the same way with with human trafficking isn't it it makes it tough for law enforcement and prosecutors too doesn't it yeah absolutely absolutely I was a prosecutor for 23 years and spent um a lot of I would say probably 15 years doing child exploitation and human trafficking at the federal level and I will say that and I used to do white collar cases and so I would always tell people trafficking is the most complex crime i've ever prosecuted or worked to investigate because it does have so it is hidden like like we're discussing and it does create the situation where when law enforcement goes in you're right a lot of victims often are um uncooperative for many reasons they're intimidated they are worried about deportation depending on the circumstances whatever it may be there are a lot of things that really um bode against a successful investigation and prosecution which is why it's so important to have this community outreach and to have partners right to have people who are eyes and ears for law enforcement right people who are in their day-to-day lives seeing things that law enforcement simply cannot see or cannot detect on their own I will tell you from experience that the community participation and hotline calls were being referred to the federal government and law enforcement as well as the state and locals and that that was a key component not only for prosecution but also for obtaining evidence intelligence tying different locations patterns of activity that was occurring not only in different parts of Florida but also potentially in other states okay Rick Minor back here to this operation stolen innocence again because it struck me as being a a wake-up call for those of us who perhaps still harbor this uh supposition which is I know it's illogical but still you think of this as you know shady people in back alleys and and suddenly this comes down you have 170 plus prosecutions pending on this thing and some of the names that came out here as suspects in this were just um jaw-dropping I mean you're talking some you know pretty high-placed folks in the community who supposedly were involved in this did that strike you too it did it did you know it um uh I i want to thank Robin out because as as they both said I mean this is um in many cases right under our noses and um one thing that the Tallahassee Leon commission on the status women and girls has been doing for years is trying to help also to educate folks and increase awareness of some of the behaviors the hints that you can see in people in people's actions uh that can maybe um people if people are aware of the signs and and some of the hints they might get in other people's behavior they can be the ones that can notify law enforcement and save lives and protect uh innocent victims from being um for being taking advantage of uh and one thing that mr Martinez has hit on is is focusing on certain areas you know we know that there are areas within Leon County that have a a concentration of this type of activity you know in addition to operation stolen innocence we also had in 2019 um a TPD investigation for about a week that was focused on the hotels uh along the north Monroe i-10 interchange and within that one week there were 19 arrests for various criminal behavior you know illegal drug possession uh possession of weapons by felons all of this is very highly interconnected so when you see a hot spot for crime such as we have in north Monroe and i-10 that also is tends to be a hot spot for for human trafficking we have Robin and I have talked about this we have a majority of human trafficking arrests in Leon County take place right in that area of hotels along with i-10 so we we can focus on an area but then apply that community outreach in ways to help address the issue and we'll talk about this during the next uh parts of the program but um you know Robin and I would like to work together toward increasing awareness among the people that work in the hotels as well as the surrounding restaurants to tackle the problem well let's go around the the panel and and get some of those early warning signals uh in this covered era when we're trying to socially distance and maintain some separation between us and other people we may not be as observant as we might otherwise be when it comes to people in our surroundings I mean my gosh we're trying to stay away from them but but Robin Hassler Thompson what are some things we can be on the lookout for and it's not necessarily as blatant as a young girl screaming help help they're taking me away what are we looking for here to give us a at least a reason to suspect and perhaps notify authorities that something is amiss here well I you know there are so many things um a lot of this really does depend on um looking around to a vulnerability that that might be demonstrated by someone so if someone is in an extremely vulnerable situation just taking the big picture like for example before COVID we were at the Kearney center looking and working with our local unhoused population so that you know the shelter was there we knew people were most vulnerable so what we did simply was go there and talk to people to residents and staff and we're doing that remotely now but talking to people who are vulnerable now that might sound like well that's not an immediate sign of trafficking but I'll tell you it is the number one sign of anybody who's victim victimized is that they do have this vulnerability so even in the case of the operation stolen innocent that young child she was homeless she had so many crises in her life that she was easy prey for traffickers so we take a very wide angle uh lens vision if you will at how do you see if someone is traffic um and with that kind of the idea of vulnerability I would actually like to pass it to Barbara because she undoubtedly has some examples some case examples that will bring the issue really really home like how did they come to your attention Barbara sure so you know very important and I think you've hit on this Tom you know it's not like a a robbery where you see it when it's happening um you know so a lot of the tips or the information that would come in oftentimes people are are worried is not enough right so you're not going to call 9-1-1 you're not going to call a local police department but it's that feeling that you get that something just doesn't seem right and and the great thing about the hotline and which is that one eight eight uh eight three seven three seven eight eight I still remember uh it's ingrained in my head um is that you know it doesn't have to be a fully exposed or definite you know human trafficking situation so some of the examples that we would get are for um lots of people living in one home um you know for example we had a labor trafficking case in west palm beach Florida where believe it or not there were 38 filipino workers living in a home that looked like one of those cookie cutter developments and and frankly that went on for about a year before anybody reported it um because the neighbors were the traffickers were filipino and they had people coming in and out and they owned their own business um but it but it was obviously not a normal situation another one involving um women or and minors oftentimes it's unclear whether somebody's a minor but they look like young girls um certainly you know where they're staying in one apartment um and we've received tips about a lot of foreign women eastern european women different or even American uh women but u.s citizens but it seems odd that they're coming in and out at all hours of the night and and we're able to get that information follow up learn more tie it maybe to other people other locations which is great um we've even you know just had situations where one single worker unit and one employee seemed to be very hidden from the outside world other than maybe going to church and so people at the church would try to engage in conversation and they felt like maybe that person was not allowed they had that feeling that something was wrong and they would report that and sure enough you may have a domestic servitude type of situation so I i I really implore people to think about that those times when you see something that you know doesn't seem right and and to say that it's okay to call that in and and because if there are multiple complaints involving the same location the same people the same hotel uh then we start to see a pattern and a pattern is something that we can definitely uh help you know work on much more um I think reactively I want to get the same okay I'll get you in a second here Robin I just uh Commissioner Minor I know you have had some um some emphasis on uh if not cracking down at least perhaps being a little bit more uh circumspect about some of the businesses along that northman roast recorder that you referenced a little earlier in our conversation there are some of these activities going on under the auspices of what would otherwise be legitimate businesses I mean you can't pick up a prescription at most cvs's at three o'clock in the morning but in some parts of Leon County you can have a massage that just seems odd to me I don't know yes and and there was an arrest uh just recently about uh a man from pensacola that was arrested uh um for human trafficking in connection with some massage parlors one of which was on the North Monroe here in Tallahassee but also massage parlors in Virginia and Pennsylvania uh so I mean it's it's it's an issue um yeah my focus in large part recently has been along north Monroe as you mentioned and um you know i've actually canvassed north Monroe um i've walked up and down north and row just walking into business storefronts talking with the manager or the owner and basically putting together an email list and getting together this network of uh business is along north Monroe and one thing that I'd like to do working with Robin and Barbara and others is is reaching out to these businesses and offering that type of um awareness training that that staff offers with Robin and and by by educating um not just the hotel staff but also broadening that this is one thing that Robin has talked about in terms of her strategy is broadening that to the restaurants that are nearby the hotels so that you have restaurant staff you know waiters cashiers uh if someone comes up to a cat you know to a cashier and order something you know that is a great opportunity for that employee to take a look and try to get some of those signs that Robin and Barbara were talking about um we have an interest in making sure that that everyone who works and lives in that area uh is aware of these signs to watch out for um you know we've also seen increased homelessness along north Monroe uh we need to find not as it not only is it just the right thing to do is to help these people find permanent homes but it also is um that that population is very vulnerable to human trafficking as Barbara and Robin have said if if you're homeless um you don't have the resources um and you need to rely on people and in some cases you might rely on the wrong person that has taken advantage of you and putting you in a situation where you were being trafficked without you even being aware of it so we have an interest as a community in in taking a look at north Monroe reducing the crime there helping the people that are homeless and around that area to find permanent housing and then part of that requires us doing more community outreach with the people who live and work along that area so that they can spot the signs okay thank you Robin go ahead I'm sorry we interrupted yeah I was wanting to um share with you all that and really it ties into both what Rick and Barbara just said is that stack received funding from Leon County it's the Leon County cares funding to do outreach on these very points into our community so we have a series of of billboards direct social media toolkits for our community partners with graphics that show um or ask you are you being forced to work or use your body you might think it odd that nowhere on that billboard are you going to see the words human trafficking and that's because people don't identify that they are being trafficked just what we were talking about but they will say yeah i've been working no one's paid me I'm afraid to leave my job I don't have my my boss holds my identity documents or they're gonna kill my sister if I do something and I have to keep I keep have to keep having sex with these men every Thursday or every Friday night so um so we're doing this again with this idea of public-private partnership for us as a non-profit so grateful that Leon County is doing this and we're tying this into to people being vulnerable to covet because again because of biases and discrimination and economic instability and insecurity that's endemic in our world that makes people more vulnerable around COVID it's making people more vulnerable to being trafficked so just wanted to to let everyone know that this is happening in this awareness month that we're we're releasing this information and Tom I can send you the toolkit and information if you want any of this on the um on the website but really echoes everything that Barbara and Rick were just talking about that is terrific Robin and also you've got some event-oriented sorts of things coming up too right yes as usual we have a community calendar that's on this uh stack website we have 10 different events including this that will help people become more aware of what human trafficking is and what they can do um it's one thing to be aware but we want people to have the confidence to take action you're never going to know I don't say I shouldn't say never but you may not know 100 that someone is being trafficked but how do you when you suspect something how do you take action safely and um you know help that person to support them and what they need and and most often it is around safety issues right right go ahead Barbara well and I was just going to follow up and say you know it's so important and great to hear everything uh that is happening uh locally to get people together and educated um and I i think it's also just important to highlight that although most people want to do something because it's the right thing and to help people out one of the things that I'm now doing in in my role in private practice is compliance programs for companies and businesses and and there is this aspect that I think is important for business owners to know and that is that there is civil liability if you are not aware if you are not um you know being training or being trained and this is an issue that is very much happening it's not like 10 years ago when people would say oh what is trafficking nobody had any idea today and we've seen this with very high profile cases that have been publicized nationally and internationally people are less forgiving cusTomers are less forgiving there have been suits filed against major chain hotel companies by individuals who claim that they were trafficked in hotels there are uh businesses that have been sued civilly where individuals say they were labor trafficked and products that they produced in the uh or that have been provided to u.s citizens have been made that way and so there is this aspect also um that is smart business you know and that it's important to be in compliance and to think about that and that's another way to prevent it right because rather than just responding because by the time we're able to rescue somebody you know that person has been terribly exploited so anything we can do um to prevent it I think is equally important before we move on Barbara something you just mentioned that that resonates uh definitely with me because of a recent conversation I had with Paolo Annino a professor at the FSU law school and his graduate group that is working on some international human trafficking this is something that we don't see with the personal degree of the other kinds of trafficking that we've been discussing but products that are made with essentially forced labor often involving children in other countries that we as consumers then purchased thereby aiding and abetting this kind of thing you're going to be addressing that too aren't you yes yes um I mean I know Robin also has a a huge interest in that as well so so first obviously with having corporate clients that understand um the ramifications it's interesting so many people and so many corporations are interested in doing anything they can to abide by regulations and laws there are regulations about chain of supply actually uh in the united states um there are uh is you know obviously California is a big enforcer but but even just more broadly federally I think we may see some increases in that by the way and and I think that encouraging corporations to understand that once something like this comes to light whether they were aware or unaware um they could be it's a huge compliance risk and so we're trying to help companies to make sure that they understand what it is how they can minimize the risk like you would any doing their due diligence like they would do in any other type of compliance area and you you save lives and you help people um so I mean I think that that's a great corporate uh uh idea and and certainly even for local businesses as well and that's really been the theme of our imagining freedom event every year Tom it's really highlighting those businesses uh restaurants farmers in our community who produce goods and services that we know are slavery and trafficking free and we give we give them applause and kudos and and suggest people buy from you know red eye coffee because we know that their supply chains are free of human trafficking so that is so important that's another reason to uh shop local I think Rick miner but uh yeah now I gotta ask you does Leon County vet all of the uh supplies of which there are a lot that the local government purchases to make sure that they are not involved with any of these kinds of activities I uh that's a good question I don't know how much we vet the the the contractors that we work with but but uh Robert and I have talked about uh putting some things into our upcoming contracts uh where we would be to put that in a codified in the contract arrangements that we have with future contractors so you know it's the kind of thing where uh by putting that into a contract for Leon County not only when they review and sign that contract but you're also um increasing accountability for that contractor to make sure that any of its suppliers uh have a clear uh chain within their you know within their their suppliers about making sure that uh none of that whole supply chain that they that they deal with has any type of uh human trafficking involved in it I think that's great I think that's great uh Commissioner Minor and let me just add something from a legal perspective that um unlike other types of crimes and I'm talking about criminal not just civil and and regulations but you know the standard of knowledge for trafficking uh in the sex arena in specifically um is is knowledge or reckless disregard uh essentially right if you knew or should have known then you may be in violation of criminal laws um and so the looking the other way and deliberate ignorance is not a defense um so making people and helping people to understand that you have to be accountable that that doesn't work in this arena because of the way the law has developed is very important and helpful to businesses I think yeah yeah and you know no I'm sorry Tom and you know the conversations that Robin you know and I have had about that uh I just recently I think are very helpful and you know there are ways where we can as as Barbara just said there are ways we can um ensure that people don't feel like they can turn a blind eye uh and you know so working with working with us at the county in in in talking about putting that type of cause in the contract will uh I think change that type of thing to where people say I I'm on the hook I'm signing this contract in black and white I'm responsible now I'm held accountable um you know it's not convenient for me it's not you know it's to my detriment to turn a blind eye i've got to be aware of this and maintain that awareness you know the other thing that I found is when you start talking to businesses they do want to do the right thing a lot of them don't understand what trafficking is they don't understand um you know how they have a role in it and and it's really a matter just like we're doing with all these events this month with the big bend coalition against human trafficking it's all about trying to make people aware so they they are empowered to do the right thing and and they will step up I believe people will step up um we're at a critical we've kind of I think passed a critical mass but more and more people are understanding what this is and I think if we give them the tools and we give them um knowledge and confidence so they can respond in the right way I i think most people will I i agree with when I'm sorry when I was when i've been talking to north Monroe businesses and and and asking them about what their experiences are um I mean every single one of them i've talked to have talked about the crime uh and so I think um they they want to help improve the situation one thing that's great about Tallahassee and Leon County is that the people who live here want to make this a better community and they want to get involved and they want to help so um you know when it comes to increasing awareness when it comes to making sure they do make that call when they see some something suspicious um I think the businesses along north Monroe are are more than ready to step up but are those uh resources available on an ongoing basis for instance uh the the consumer who just goes into a store and gets a a candy bar did they have the wherewithal to look at the different brands and say oh I think that some of these according to a list I saw or some other resource may be suspect I will avoid them I will instead purchase this one over here because I looked on the list and they say that it's you know made with in regular compensated labor and not by enslaved children in Guatemala Robin or do you have those kinds of things available yes we do actually one of our sponsors speaking of chocolate but one of our sponsors for our event was Tony's Chocolonely which is a Chocolonely uh which is a company out of Belgium they gave us 175 bars of chocolate which I could not hand out in perfect in person it was so frustrating so we ended up giving lots of of chocolate gifts away but the fact is there are um we have on our website lots of information survive and thrive advocacy.org you could just google slavery free goods trafficking free goods there's a website called know your um slavery what your slaveryfootprint.org um where you can type that in and actually figure out how many how many people who are enslaved people are working for you whether it's through the production of your cell phone or your car your clothing um there are lists and books and all kinds of things that are out there because again this issue is getting more and more attention and it really is so important your power as a consumer uh to make uh those decisions with your dollars you know it might be a clothing uh company like uh there's a there's one called stitch fix which is a clothing subscription company they have on their website we do not purchase you know clothes that are not that are that are not produced uh you know safely or with with people who are not enslaved so there is more awareness about this and you just have to do a little bit of research it's it's hard I'm not saying it's easy um but it's getting better and better and and Barbara Martinez that the the way to attack this most effectively would seem to be from what i've been hearing from Robin and commissioner is good old-fashioned free market capitalism you starve these activities for revenue you will decrease them and ultimately put them out of business like any any other branch of commerce or even or even better you get them to you know understand it and to improve their practices and then it's competition right at its at its best um you know getting off that list um and and so it's interesting that you raised that Tom because uh I it was a huge decision for me to leave being a career prosecutor the united states attorney's office and to to switch into private and my former the former u.s attorney is a is a partner at holland at night and he was the one who uh recruited me and and said I think you know there's some other things you can still do not exclusively I do other kinds of work but he said uh you know to help with the compliance part on the anti-trafficking holiday night is very open to that and I thought wow you know it's it is very limiting uh and I used to say this as a prosecutor to to try to combat trafficking strictly through prosecution um or you know arrests why because the crime has committed people have been hurt already it's difficult you know like we discussed for all the reasons that you said or highlighted so if we can prevent it if we can also share it with people who um you know are in a position to really make a huge difference internationally I think that's a really great thing and I will tell you being in private practice like Robin said you know it's people you're it's surprising how many people who are very uh good at their industry well educated know a lot of things are not well versed on in trafficking and so so this is a great thing that that you guys are doing commissioner miner and and you know the radio Robin everybody to get all partners together so yes absolutely I think the best approach is partnership and prevention first and and then you know as part of that we will unfortunately discover other trafficking that needs to be prosecuted there there's still a law enforcement component there and Commissioner Minor that's that again falls under the wherewithal of you folks when it comes to the sheriff's department budget and coming off of an all-time record homicide year I just saw those numbers and that's terrifying as well but will Sheriff McNeill and his department uh even as revenues are down still have the resources that that organization will need to keep up with on top of everything else um you know a possible human trafficking uh if not outbreak at least an ongoing problem in this community yes sure you know unfortunately um you know we touched on this earlier but with the pandemic I mean we're we're seeing increases in poverty increases and uh homelessness uh and also increases in in isolation and so all of those things together contribute to more vulnerability among many people which is right for um increased victimization of human trafficking so the work that Robin is doing and what Barbara has been doing is even more important now than it was before the pandemic because unfortunately there's a greater population out there now that is vulnerable susceptible to human trafficking and being victims so um to answer your question Tom yes I mean we we need to make sure that our law enforcement our sheriff's office our taxi police department have the resources they need um in the midst of a pandemic to make sure that they're keeping people safe um and also keeping an eye out for uh those vulnerable populations that are more susceptible to human trafficking yeah and that brings us back to that that 13 year old girl who was victimized uh that we talked about at the outset of the program and Robin Hassler-Thompson is there any way that we can talk about vaccines and all inoculate young people and families to give them more tools to uh prevent this from going on um there are some quick short-term things to do and then there are longer-term issues that Rick was just talking about you know um we do have several programs this month that focus on how you can work how you can understand as parents and grandparents um how to help your the youth that are around you your kids your grandkids not to be vulnerable online um right now we see kids going to school online everybody's got their phones they're gaming they're doing all kinds of things they're accepting friends they're I don't even know all the websites and all the the apps that are out there right that kids are using um people need to know that their kids are more vulnerable online than they are walking through a parking lot and having a white van snatch them right that is not um what we've seen in terms of of children being vulnerable so one of the things right away with kids is for every adult to understand and monitor their child's online behavior and there are several events happening this month where you can be smarter about that starting um with the one uh on this uh which will be uh yesterday when this airs at the rotary club but also throughout the month there are there are uh things about that um but the other thing is that how do you support people who are in need in our community in this case how we don't know but what was going on with that child's mother parents her living situation her food security what was going on how did her teachers respond were her teachers educated what have we been doing and I'll tell you our Florida department of education has been doing an amazing job of educating everybody you know school bus drivers and administrators across the board Tom the biggest thing we can do is really to help everyone to understand what this is and how to respond that's what the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center is all about we support survivors and we work really hard to connect and to educate and inform so whatever it is uh everybody's got a role that's one of our other messages to understand this and just know what to do um one of the things that we talked about with local government is how can we educate people who are doing home inspections or um construction site you know things that the county does their boots on the ground inside businesses and houses and homes all the time so how can they understand what what's going on so so that's another piece of this and then to talk to children themselves I'm doing something with a sorority on Saturday online talking to to uh young young girls uh in high school how do you make sure that you are not vulnerable you know the person who is posing as a friend online could actually be a trafficker who's trying to lure you he's trying to you know get pictures of you and blackmail you with those pictures and then force you into a situation that you'd find it very difficult to get out of so um so talking to kids talking to parents everyone around that child is important and then really branching out to the community at large you know we also I can talk forever about this but I'll stop I'll say one more thing high schools have contacted stack and said how can we as students do something so these consumer campaigns are really important as well kids are amazing they want to learn they want to get hands-on and involved and it's so exciting to be part of how can we make a difference so so we've got tons of projects we can talk about yeah I'm scared of the kids who have disappeared uh we have here in Leon County I think there are more than a thousand maybe around 1200 school agers who have essentially vanished who have disappeared who have dropped off of the the grid the educational grid if you will and I'm sure that we're not the only folks who are in that kind of circumstance Barbara Martinez does that make even more kids potentially fodder for this sort of thing absolutely absolutely and and what you know Robin has highlighted that uh online I used to do the project save childhood which is basically online crimes in addition separate and apart from trafficking that target children and and it's it's it's really at an all-time high and with so many people at home now pedophiles at home and traffickers uh who are really kind of uh forced they're forced to look for more online so it absolutely is important um you know to help prevent kids from literally disappearing um kids think that if they talk to somebody online that they know this person and that they know everything about them because you know and so it's a different mindset and and there's a lot of things that parents can do in that regard I'll just highlight a couple of things about that that I think are very important that sometimes um we forget to mention and one is that boys are absolutely victimized um and targeted by traffickers and child extortionists sextortionist ex you know they're exploited online but also that a lot of parents focus on um educating girls and not boys about tough things like um you know listen if they're online they may be seeing things related to the sex industry and and and they feel like trafficking is totally distinct and and it is there is a distinction between you know prostitution and sex dropping but I think parents you know kids learn from parents obviously teaching them how to treat a girl what is appropriate what's proper what's not and a lot of our traffickers were kids boys who started at a very young age maybe um learning that it was just different if they didn't think a woman or a girl was worth uh anything they could treat her very badly and and it's interesting how that plays out in trials by the way traffickers are it is they they go to trial 90 of our cases went to trial and it was because traffickers always believed that the women or because it was mostly women or girls would not be able to testify against them so there's something to that so I just want to highlight that boy talk about hubris good gosh but it's also terrifying for anyone who's a parent I am Rick miner you are uh and it's using resources like uh what Robin makes available and other uh information that is out there seems to me to be critical to educate across the board parents kids governmental agencies non-profits everybody here absolutely I would like to put that on our website as a banner Tom exactly what you said that is exactly what it comes down to um and I'd also like to jump on what Barbara said on the um issue of the vulnerability of of girls and women is that also the LGBTQ community so vulnerable and because of that the vulnerabilities that they um they have in our society they're also more vulnerable to being trafficked and they're more vulnerable to being othered or otherized by individuals just like with our immigrant population it's very very disheartening to see how people can dehumanize another person turn them essentially into a commodity and sell them which is the essence of trafficking well Rick Miner on top of all the other services and uh human uh um assets that are supported by governments like Leon counties it sounds like you got one more thing on your plate to really work with during what are still not certainly the best of times when it comes to revenues or resources or anything else so how do you see this playing out moving forward for local governments to try to get behind this even more than perhaps they have in the past well here in Leon County we're very fortunate to have the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center uh led by Robin she's been terrific uh for years on this and and she and I have just recently you know reconnected on a series of conversations about what Leon County um can do what more we can do on top of what we've already been doing and and the uh the Leon cares funding that she's gotten uh for stack has been put to really good use increasing public awareness uh but there's more that we can do and Robin and I have talked about um that clause in the contract for for for beyond county contractors that's something that we want to uh push forward um and and and like I said before i've talked about focusing on the geographical uh angle on this so you know north Monroe the the i-10 interchange just north and just south of that uh for folks that are interested in helping with that effort and keeping uh updated on on what we're doing working with the city of Tallahassee with TPD and the sheriff's office you know go to our website at Leon County um and uh and sign up for our email list because we want to we want to put together a big large network of people not just the hotels and restaurants and businesses along north Monroe who are getting on board but also folks throughout the entire community that want to see real change uh that want to see a reduction in the crime along that part of uh north Monroe and also a reduction in human trafficking along north Monroe as we said in the beginning that is a hot spot that is the hot spot and living on with human trafficking so we all have an interest in making sure that we do everything we can and if you want to join in this effort um go to our Leon County website Leoncountyfl.gov and we hope to be working on some training programs too that are going to be accessible for uh the business community this month one of the things that we're doing is we are doing a training for the hospitality industry so people can go to our website and check that out but but we'd like to do a lot more training and awareness really training and awareness that's tailored to those individual businesses and entities and and to the faith community there's lots going on that people can sort of be part of and and again when they know more than they're able to call law enforcement when they have a suspicion of something that doesn't look right just circling back to what Barbara was saying at the beginning like what does something's not right about that something's not right about that uh woman who's who's working in this restaurant or with that child in this classroom so people's radars will be raised and they'll be able to contact law enforcement perhaps um definitely try to get resources to the people who are being affected and and then do a lot more prevention we'd love to see uh and I'll tell you we've gotten a lot of uh a number of calls from our healthcare community where people from the emergency room or behavioral health have been calling us and saying we have someone we think she's been trafficked and it turns out a number of these are also intimate partner violence situations so it's only by way of saying every single non-profit in this community businesses everybody working together is what's going to make a difference because you know you could be working um on one side of the coin and be a as best you can be to help house kids that are runaways but if you don't understand human drafting you're gonna be missing a piece of it so how do we how do we all work together and that's also by way of saying CCYS has been great to work with um and and we've worked with them a lot so it's really about joining hands on this issue it sounds like when it comes to this topic uh all of us are first responders essentially there you go again that's great can we use that can we use that first responders I think we've got it I think folks we'll have to let it go with that it has been a wonderful conversation and uh during this human uh trafficking awareness month observance uh what a great way to kick it off here for the first Perspectives program of the new year with Leon County commission chair Rick miner uh Rick all the best to the wonderful family of yours and uh to your aide jody thank you all for what you do down there on the fifth floor of the Leon County courthouse Barbara Martinez you have had uh some terrific stuff to share today as far as how all of us can be more aware and observant when it comes to trying to ferret out this kind of horrible situation and good luck on the presentations you're going to make during the month and Robin Hassler Thompson could not do it without you there at the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center thank you Tom we love you thank you thank you Tom thank you for coming thanks for having us we will do it again probably before the year is out and maybe we'll have some real success stories to share during that time too so again folks thanks so much for being on Perspectives which is produced by WFSU Public Media in Tallahassee thanks going out to Taylor Cox, Paul Dam, Amy Diaz de Villegas, Brandon Brown, Trisha Moynihan and Lydell Rawls our director of content Kim Kelling executive producer of the show and I'm Tom Flanigan hey in the weeks to come we're going to be exploring multiple topics among these a campaign to restore the historic street layout of Apalachicola as well as the status of the community's namesake river once again winding up in the courts it'll be exciting that and much more coming up in the course of the new year right here on Perspectives thank you