Continued…
“We are, I think, very expressly and specifically in partnership with law enforcement agencies,” she said. “And so I really do want to declare that we’re certainly not opposed to law enforcement, and we work very closely with state attorneys general, with district attorneys, with federal law enforcement, but first and foremost we respect that victims and survivors have to have agency.”
The Florida House of Representatives voted unanimously for the bill that created the new state hotline. Actually, the function of reporting human trafficking was added to an already-established hotline that also reports food stamp fraud and gasoline pump fraud.
Orlando Democratic State Rep. Anna Eskamani, who voted for the bill, says she doesn’t think Florida’s trafficking hotline will be in conflict with the national trafficking hotline.
“I’m hopeful not,” she said. “I mean, I will say preventing human trafficking, overwhelmingly, is an issue that is incredibly bipartisan when there is collective alignment to do what’s right. And there’s also an agreement that it’s a problem in Florida since our two top industries are tourism and agriculture. And these are the two top industries that are most vulnerable to trafficking.”
Eskamani adds that many people trapped in these criminal operations may not speak English and or have documentation. They may have come from another country to escape being trafficked there, so their dealings with Florida law enforcement must be very thoughtful…
“…because there is a fear of deportation. With that said, the federal government does have a visa process for victims of crime,” Eskamani said. “But not every person knows that, and not every law enforcement officer is trained on that.”
Victor Williams is a retired agent with Homeland Security Investigations who has 14 years of experience in human trafficking. He’s also the founder and president of Quest2Freedom, an anti-trafficking nonprofit in Miami. He says both the national hotline and the law enforcement sides of the debate could improve their games. He called the national hotline recently and had to wait for an hour.
“It’s not about bad-mouthing Polaris, because the only issue I have with them is the amount of time it’s taking them to answer the call,” said Williams. “But they are doing their job in the mentality of victim-centered trauma-informed [care]. If the victims don’t want law enforcement notified, then we don’t notify law enforcement.”
He says law enforcement officers across the board should be trained – not just those who work with trafficking task forces. And that they should learn how to make their cases without putting victims on the stand.
“..because I can’t force the victim to get on the stand if they don’t want to. And I definitely don’t want to put a traumatized person on the stand,” he said. “So, what am I left with then? Having to figure out how to put that bad guy in jail without using that victim.”
Williams also points out that most other states don’t have their own hotlines, so they rely on Polaris.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline number is 888-373-7888. Florida’s trafficking hotline number is 855-352-7233.