Will sex trafficking spike in Las Vegas because of the Super Bowl?

That's one of several questions we're asking during Human Trafficking Prevention Month this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

According to World Population Review, Nevada has the second highest rate of human trafficking in the country.

So why is it so prevalent, and what can prevent it?

Here to help answer those questions are Linda Perez, CEO of The Shade Tree; Kim Small, CEO of Signs of Hope; Deputy Chief Nick Farese, of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department; and Jessica Kay, a sex trafficking survivor and social worker.

Thank you all for joining us on this very important topic.

I want to start with the Super Bowl.

And I want to start with you, Jessica, since you were trafficked here in Las Vegas.

From your perspective, does sex trafficking increase in the city that hosts the Super Bowl, and, if so, how much?

(Jessica Kay) I don't know about how much, but I know wherever there's disposable income and there is a lot of humans, it is naturally going to attract human trafficking.

So it takes disposable income, obviously, to purchase sex.

And so, yeah, we will see an increase.

Studies do show that what happens is crime, including prostitution, increased before and after the big event and actually decreased during the big event, which is because everybody's tuned in to what is the big event.

So it's not just the Super Bowl.

It's anything that brings in large amounts of people with disposable income.

-You and I had talked, and you mentioned CES, which is in town next week.

-CES, big conventions, Formula 1, boxing matches, those were things that we went to, our trafficker would take us to, in order to make more money and capitalize on those opportunities.

-Deputy Chief Farese?

(Nick Farese) Yeah.

And our stance is this happens every single day, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

What we are trying to do is use the event of the Super Bowl to bring awareness to the community, because while a big event brings people in, Las Vegas has big events and hosts big events every single day and every single week.

So this is something that it's not just unique to the Super Bowl.

-You agree with that?

Anything to add?

(Linda Perez) Absolutely.

I think you and I had talked, Amber, and I feel like we need to get away from saying it's the Super Bowl or F1 and those types.

We know that the conferences and the big events attract more people, and that's why we're going to see the spike.

So, yes, the Super Bowl, all of that, but not specifically saying it is the Super Bowl's fault that we're going to see an increase.

It is a large event that's going to attract people.

-Granted, Kim, your organization, Signs of Hope, is getting money from the Super Bowl because of this issue.

(Kim Small) We're getting the added resources necessary to combat the spike.

That's going to happen because, as my colleagues have said, we see it.

We see it with larger events.

So I've always said if we had the resources that are being afforded to us with the Super Bowl on a daily basis, we'd still see large numbers.

So this happens to be an opportunity for us to work diligently with our partners to combat it.

-Oh, that kind of-- if you had the resources that the Super Bowl is providing to you for this event on a daily basis, you'd still be facing a large number?

-We would see a large number.

We might not see as large as when we do have larger events, but we still see a large number.

-Okay.

For Formula 1, Metro did reportedly arrest 70 people in relation to sex trafficking as part of an operation.

Now, there are sex workers here in Las Vegas.

They call themselves "voluntary sex workers."

They do it to make money for themselves, and they oppose these kinds of operations.

There is one named Adaline Gray who wrote an opinion column in The Nevada Independent.

She wrote, quote, Catching real traffickers is too much hard work.

Locking up prostitutes and their clients who are engaged in commercial consensual sex is a quick way to boost arrest numbers when all it really does is waste government money and community resources.

How would you respond to that?

-She's entitled to her opinion, but I highly disagree with that.

First off, we always take a victim-centered approach to any of our operations.

And the comment about "it's too much work going after the traffickers," I disagree, because if you look at the numbers that we provided for the operations that we did, yes, there was enforcement operations going after the sex seller, but we had very large numbers going after the traffickers and the sex buyers as well.

-Do you have anything to add to that, Jessica?

-First off, the buying of women and children isn't an occupation or a hobby.

It's a violation.

I think that people-- this is my opinion, but I think people engaging in consensual sex work, I think it's a trauma response.

Many sex workers are victims of human trafficking.

Many know that.

And I think also, sometimes they think this is their only pathway out.

And so I disagree.

I think the amount of violence that I experienced, both from my trafficker as well as buyers, needs to be-- they need to be held accountable.

And I think most victims would feel that same way.

-Now, when you were being trafficked, would you have agreed with this woman?

-I most likely would have told you it was my choice.

It took me about five years to recognize that I was a victim.

So in the moment, I probably would have argued that it was consensual and it was my choice.

-And that's why it's so important for law enforcement, for us to take that victim-centered approach, because it might take five, six, or seven times of interacting with that person before they're willing to accept services and try to get away from their trafficker.

-Some do not see themselves, as Jessica said, as being trafficked as a victim.

-Yes.

-And that's why our partnership with Metro is so important to go out and provide the resources.

They may take it.

They may not.

But we'll keep going out and offering those resources.

-Paint a picture of what that looks like when organizations like yours go out with Metro.

What are you trying to do?

-What we're trying to do is offer them a different way of life.

And what we're providing for them is opportunities to get out of the life, be it transportation, travel to where they're from, shelter, like with our partners at The Shade Tree, or medical resources.

We're here.

We're out there on a nightly basis to tell them: Here's who we are, here's what's available to you, here's what you can have when you're ready for it.

-Yeah.

And when you are out there, what are the responses you're getting?

-When they went out for this last night, for this last time-- -For Formula 1?

- --my executive assistant-- yes.

She's also our human traffic project coordinator that works closely with the task force, which I think we need to recognize the Human Trafficking Task Force, the Southern Nevada Human Trafficking Task Force, because we are doing amazing things in the community.

And by collaborating and working together, that's how we're being able to do that.

And like Kim said, they're out there every night.

And they are offering a different way of life when they're ready.

-When they're ready.

-And it's important, too.

We're not just doing this because of Formula 1.

We do these-- we do monthly stand-down events with the Human Trafficking Task Force, where we go out and it's no arrests, no citations.

It's all outreach.

I remember my time before I promoted to Deputy Chief when I was the Captain of the Spring Valley area command, we were doing monthly operations just as patrol on the West Trop Corridor, which is a high-volume sex trafficking corridor with Signs of Hope, where patrol officers are going out.

And to Kim's point, we're offering them housing, we're offering them medical, we're offering them transportation, anything we can to get them to escape that lifestyle.

-But at the same time, you're sometimes arresting them.

-There are times that we have to arrest.

We have to balance public safety with outreach.

And sometimes that arrest or that citation is that nudge that they need to maybe take a step back and reflect and realize that they are being sex trafficked and they are a victim and get that help.

-Jessica, was that the case for you?

You were arrested.

-I was arrested.

No, that was not the case.

I actually had an officer tell me, "All right.

I'll see you again in a couple of weeks," when I was released from jail.

But also sex trafficking wasn't even written into law at that time.

So sex trafficking has only been a Nevada law since 2013.

-What years were you working?

-I was arrested in 2007.

So that's when-- the end of 2007 is when I escaped from my trafficker.

-Okay.

So that didn't work.

The arrest didn't work.

What was it that finally made you realize?

-So I knew I was a victim of domestic violence.

So after I left my trafficker, I was in domestic violence for eight years.

And so I had started telling my story as a survivor of domestic violence as a way for myself to heal.

And then I was getting my master's degree at the University of Southern California, and I was in a Violence Against Women class, and I had a breakdown and a breakthrough in class because it was the psychoeducation of what human trafficking looked like and was that made me, you know, it finally had just kind of really clicked in my head that this is what had happened to me.

And luckily, I was surrounded by my professor and peers that really showed up for me in a courageous way.

And so I was able to process and do what I had to do.

But, yeah.

-And it's stories like that and survivors like her that train our detectives and our officers.

Because you're right, 2006, 2005, how we viewed human trafficking and how we did traditional vice enforcement didn't work.

But that's just what we did.

This victim-centered approach where, yes, you might get a ticket, you might get arrested, but you're treated as a victim.

You're treated with as a human being.

And you know, Sheriff McMahill has made humanity, injecting humanity into everything that we do one of his top priorities.

Human trafficking is just the tip of the spear of how we do that.

-And we need more survivors at the forefront.

We all know that, right?

There's only a handful of us in Nevada doing work.

We would love more, because it's that survivor-to-survivor interaction, too, that can help victims understand as well as just-- I don't know.

There's something healing when survivors are put together that I can't really describe to the general public.

But there's just this, this healing connection that happens, as well as training, right, because the crime is ever evolving.

So the only way we're going to know how this crime is evolving is by people with lived experience.

And so we need more survivor leaders at the forefront, not just in Nevada, across the country.

We need survivors leading this movement.

-Yes.

-Here's what I don't understand is if someone is being trafficked and they are unaware of it, they have no idea, how do you get into their heads?

-It's building relationships at first.

-Okay.

-Yeah, it's just building relationships, especially survivor to survivor, right?

So then there's some slight conversations about like, there's other ways, and you don't have to do this.

-When we do the stand-down events, as Deputy-- -And what does that look like?

-It's actually, it's a lot of our task force organizations out.

And we're set up, we have medical, we have clothing, we have food.

-At one location?

-At one location.

And we're able to provide these resources right then and there.

And we're able to say, you know-- and sometimes, Amber, we see the same people over and over again.

And so it is building that trust.

We do have a social worker or a licensed clinical social worker on staff, on site to talk to them when they're ready, if they're ready.

And we had one young lady that said, "No, no, no.

I don't want to talk.

I don't want to talk."

But she kept talking.

And that made us feel good.

Like, okay, let's keep talking to her.

She kept saying, "No, I don't want to talk."

But she kept talking to us.

What makes us proud is when they leave with resources, because we know that, okay, they have that when they're ready.

And maybe they're ready now.

Maybe they'll go back to where they're living, and they'll take advantage of what we've offered.

-You have to be careful with those events because of pimps possibly showing up, right?

-Sure.

And one of the things also that those nights provide, and sometimes it's just the food.

Like Kim said, the joy of just them walking away with resources, with the phone numbers on who to call.

They're not getting arrested tonight, but sometimes it's just the gratification or the thankfulness of just having food.

-My trafficker used to withhold food.

So we weren't allowed to eat at all.

There was no food kept in our house until we hit our quota, which for me was $2,500 a night.

And so the only way I would be able to eat was if a buyer happened to buy me food.

So that is a real thing.

And then building that relationship, because when-- and it's not just these people.

It's hotel staff.

It's people, places that we frequent.

If we feel safe, eventually when, "Our trafficker may beat us before we came out tonight," or, "We are at our wits end and realizing enough is enough, and I have to break this cycle that I'm in."

We will find somebody who we feel safe with.

-Okay.

-And you hit on an important topic, because that's part of our outreach and partnering.

It's not just with, you know, our nonprofit groups, but we train hotels, we train security and casino workers, we train airport staff, we train baristas at Starbucks just to, that one little sign that they might see something.

And you know, we say the See Something, Say Something campaign, and it's predominantly around counterterrorism and homeland security, but it's so much more than that.

And if somebody just picks up on one cue and then makes a phone call and gets the right people to that situation, we can really help a victim.

-Let's name some of those cues.

What should people be looking for?

And we're talking about an average person out in public?

-Yeah.

I think when we had talked, I mentioned about grooming.

And I know that Jessica can explain a lot about that.

But it's just understanding if you're seeing changes in behavior or you're seeing this woman that is isolated or, you know, cut off.

And one of the things I wanted to mention because, obviously, we are The Shade Tree; we are the shelter.

But we're looking at different ways.

And we learned that from Jessica, from Kim and her team at Signs of Hope, from Metro.

We're all kind of learning together on what is the best way to address what's going on in our community and the signs to look for.

So for me, it's education and awareness.

But I love working so closely with these organizations, because we're learning from each other.

-And so what are you telling people that are out in public and may come across someone who's being trafficked?

-What we're, the Task Force and Signs of Hope, are doing is providing the hotline.

We do have a 24/7 hotline that they're able to call with tips.

They're able to call if a victim needs resources.

They're able to call us.

What we're training the staff in the front house and the back house of the casinos in the hotels is to look for, like Linda said, people who are isolated.

I guess it's not just one thing; it's a multitude of things to look for.

But once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

-We teach our young patrol officers just even on a car stop: if it's a male and a female and the female is eyes down, try to ask the female a question and the male answers, finishes, doesn't let her talk, if the male holds her ID for her.

Sometimes I go out with my wife and I do hold her ID, but I'm not saying that's the be-all end-all.

But you know, it's putting the whole package together and just looking at two or three things that maybe it's not, but let's treat it like it is until it's not.

-Absolutely.

-Jessica, the training that's being done within hotels is so important because you were actually sold by bellhops, you said, security guards at hotels.

How a part of our hotel system here in Las Vegas is this?

-It's deep.

It's deep.

Yeah, I mean, when you have high rollers coming in looking for women and children, and somebody that works in a casino knows how to get them, they are also going to make money off the transaction.

So if I would get a buyer through a concierge or a security guard, they would get part of my payment when I left the hotel.

So it is deep.

I will say the hotels have definitely really stepping up and really trying to combat this.

I will say that.

I do a lot of work with Nevada Resorts Association and things like that.

But there's still a long ways to go.

And I think we need to educate the community not only for signs, but also how to prevent themselves from becoming victims of trafficking.

So children as well, right?

So there's so many pathways from social media, in our school systems it's happening, family is trafficking.

And so if you don't know what something is, how can you protect yourself from it?

And so I think we have to talk about the whole picture.

-Well, let's talk about your situation.

How did you become trafficked?

-I didn't know anything.

I come from a small town in Iowa.

We don't talk about hard things.

We don't have prostitution.

I mean, we do, but not that I was aware of.

And I grew up in a very broken home.

So drug addiction, domestic violence.

So that was very normalized for me at a very young age.

My first memory is SWAT raiding our house.

I was five years old.

So I was broken.

I was searching for love and belonging and finding myself in unhealthy relationships.

I was in domestic violence, which led me to losing my home.

I had to have my son go live with his father, and that is when I met my traffickers.

So I was vulnerable.

I was homeless.

I didn't have my son with me.

I had no resources.

And he groomed me for about four to six months before he put me on the track.

-How did he groom you?

-Love, affection, fulfilling my needs.

So I needed a home.

He gave me a place to stay.

Clothing, paying my bills.

So any way like that.

And I thought he was my boyfriend, so I'm in love too.

-You said in Iowa there is no prostitution.

I mean, there is prostitution, but it's not legal like it is in parts of Nevada.

-Parts of Nevada.

-Parts of Nevada.

How does that complicate what you do?

-It's very challenging because even when we go out and we do sex buyer operations, you know, a lot of them know what they're doing and it's illegal, but some don't.

And you know, this "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" fantasy that prostitution is legal, it's hard to overcome.

When you educate these people and tell them it's illegal in Clark County, you look at the size of Clark County, just to put it in perspective, it's larger than the state of New Jersey.

So while prostitution is legal in rural counties, it's not here.

And it's a big education piece that we incorporate when we are doing outreach.

-But can I say something?

-Yes.

-I think people need to understand trafficking is happening in our brothels too.

So just because it's legalized does not mean it's safer.

My trafficker had three girls in a brothel.

That was always a threat for us, because I can't leave.

If he puts me in a brothel, I can't leave.

-Hmm.

-You don't just come and go as you please when you're in brothels.

So brothels are legal pimping.

-Is the presence of prostitution in Nevada what contributes to the high rate of human trafficking here?

-Yeah.

Our laws do half the work for the traffickers... and the buyers.

It makes it a little easier for them to come out here.

I heard a story once about this trafficker from LA who grew up in a family of traffickers.

And they would come out here to essentially teach their boys how to pimp out here because it was easier and it was part of our culture.

That's the thing.

Now, the hotels have done a great job of cleaning some of this up.

But if you think 5, 10 years ago, it was extremely visible in our casinos.

It's not as visible now, but it's still happening.

-You counter that?

-No, I agree with her.

If you remember, as we opened up at the beginning of the segment, wherever there's a large population of people and disposable income, this is going to be one of those things that happens.

And as a tourist destination, as an event destination, as we move into world-class events and entertainment, this is a byproduct of it.

And, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't say how great our community partners and the hotels are.

We have phenomenal relationships with all of our hotels on the Strip and the Downtown Corridor.

And even our local hotels, they work with us, they understand this.

And you know, there might have been a time that this was a dirty little secret years ago that got swept under the rug.

That's not the case anymore.

I can say that firsthand, from working with these hotels and casinos.

-I can too.

I want to say the casinos are doing an incredible job of stepping up.

-They do take an interest and want to be educated.

They want their staff educated.

We meet with them on a monthly basis to go over our resources available to them.

They reach out to us all the time and ask, Can you come out and do the trainings?

And we're happy to do so.

-As we discussed, there isn't any education within the school system currently, right now, about sex trafficking.

-There's no mandated education.

-Okay.

-We are in some of Clark County School District's schools providing education, not just on trafficking, but on rape culture, child abuse, as well.

-Okay.

-Oh, that's great.

-Yeah.

Well, and then here's another aspect: If we are to talk with children about this, yet, this is happening within families.

Can you explain that?

How do you even go about solving that?

-You know, I just reference myself, and I am a survivor of domestic violence.

Growing up in a domestic violence home, that was normal to me.

And as we spoke yesterday, I said the education and awareness piece is so important, but also, especially for our young children, because they don't know what they're seeing.

And for myself, it's almost 80% that someone growing up in an environment like that will either be a victim or an abuser.

And I'm, I'm part of that.

So I really believe that education needs to happen at that level but in a way to get kids to start thinking or to ask questions or to have counselors in the school to be able to-- -It's gonna have to come from someone outside of the family, because-- -Yes, absolutely.

- --families are trafficking their own.

-Families are.

-It's a layered approach because, for the problem that you have, that the family, the adults, the grownups are the root cause of the problem, you have the other side of that coin where parents are disengaged or they don't know.

And I tell parents, Be nosy.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-Your kids have no freedom.

Their devices... be in those devices because on this day and age of technology, it's made it that much easier for traffickers to groom victims.

And whether they meet them on social media-- I don't have social media myself.

My kids don't have it.

And it's, part of that is to protect them because it's so easy to send a message and then the next thing you know, they're being groomed and they're in love and you have this child running away at 14, 15, 16 years old thinking they're in love.

The next thing you know, they're being trafficked.

-Looking for love that they may have lacked, similar to your situation.

-This is why kids are at risk.

-But it's not just broken homes.

So for every story you have of somebody in a broken home or foster care, I know of victims that come from well-established homes that their parents are loving and provide everything they want for them.

But for whatever reason, this child is seeking something else, or they don't even realize they're being groomed.

They just think that they're socially interacting with somebody.

-Yeah.

And I think it's really important to go back to the family piece because it could be this family looks like they have it all together.

But you have uncles, cousins.

We have to be aware, and we have to educate our families, because it's happening within our families.

-And as we work in CCSD schools, we also train their teachers on what to look for, because they spend a lot of time with the kids.

If a child is being picked up by a strange, older person that you've never seen, ask, What's going on?

Who are you?

Or do you have-- are you allowed to pick them up?

Ask the question.

-It's about building relationships at the end of the day, right?

Because their family is their family, and children don't want better families.

They want their family to be better.

And so they're not necessarily going to say, Uncle Johnny touched me.

And so it's about building those relationships, whether they're children or adult, where they have safe spaces.

-Unfortunately, we have run out of time.

We could go on and on about this.

But thank you all for joining us.

And thank you for watching.

For any of the resources discussed here, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

And I'll see you next week on Nevada Week.

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