In 2020, authorities identified more than 11,000 human trafficking cases across the country.
The Western District of New York Task Force that year says it was involved in 110 investigations and served 328 victims.
“Human trafficking is modern day slavery, a heinous crime that involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act,” Matthew Scarpino, HSI Acting Special Agent in Charge, said.
Agencies that deal with human trafficking say despite its prevalence and the billions of dollars in profit the black market industry generates, it is often a hidden crime.
“Victims rarely come forward to seek help due to language barriers, fear of their traffickers or even fear of law enforcement,” Scarpino said.
The Western District Task Force is a partnership of multiple governmental and non-governmental agencies, at both the federal local level, that serves the 17 counties of Western New York including the cities of Buffalo and Rochester.
They share resources and intelligence while giving equal priority to prosecuting offenders and supporting survivors.
“A lot of these victims need to be stabilized first and maybe need housing or need food and need food stamps,” Mary Cosgrove Moran, Western District of NY Human Trafficking Task Force coordinator, said. “Those are the kinds of things that we need to get the survivors in a good place before we pursue the cases.”
“We really work collaboratively. We bring them in or they bring us in. It works in both directions,” Michael Keane, Erie County deputy district attorney, said.
Since 2006, the task force has relied on continuous funding from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Tuesday it announced it secured another $1.5 million dollar grant to continue its work for the next three years.
The task force coordinator says public awareness is vital for an issue that affects all kinds of people.
“There are individuals that are male, female, young, old,” Cosgrove Moran said. “We start at a range from 8-year-olds to 78-year-olds and also it’s not just sex trafficking. It’s labor trafficking as well.”
The money will go toward new tools, resources and training as well as materials to educate the public.
January is Human Trafficking Awareness month.
The task force relies on tips from the general public. If you notice something suspicious, you can contact the national hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733 or live chat online at humantraffickinghotline.org. The website also has a list of signs to help recognize potential trafficking.
