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THE NORTH TEXAS HUMAN TRAFFICKING DATABASE

THE NORTH TEXAS HUMAN TRAFFICKING DATABASE. The Embrey Foundation. Contracted Equip the Saints to build the North Texas Human Trafficking Database Specified the focus of the database to be mainly the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The North Texas Human Trafficking Database (NTHTD).

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THE NORTH TEXAS HUMAN TRAFFICKING DATABASE

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  1. THE NORTH TEXAS HUMAN TRAFFICKING DATABASE

  2. The Embrey Foundation • Contracted Equip the Saints to build the North Texas Human Trafficking Database • Specified the focus of the database to be mainly the Dallas-Fort Worth area

  3. The North Texas Human Trafficking Database (NTHTD) • A listing of organizations and individuals who engage in anti-human trafficking initiatives in North Texas. • The work being done • Insight into the gaps in local anti-trafficking efforts

  4. Interviews Three types of anti-human trafficking entities were interviewed via telephone: • 24 Nonprofit organizations:Founders or Executive Directors if possible • 13 Law enforcement agencies: Specific departments engaging in anti-human trafficking work • 16 Researchers and activists:Publishing on human trafficking issues or involved in anti- human trafficking activism apart from nonprofit organization

  5. Questionnaires • Equip the Saints, with the assistance of specialists in each area, created specific questionnaires for the three focus groups • Data gathered from the three focus groups included contact person, geographic location, area(s) of work, activities, specific needs, and recommendations for further steps to end human trafficking

  6. Coverage • Equip the Saints identified North Texas as roughly consisting of the following counties: •Bosque •Erath •Johnson •Rockwall •Collin •Henderson •Kaufman •Somervell •Cooke •Hill •Montague •Tarrant •Dallas •Hood •Navarro •Van Zandt •Denton •Hunt •Palo Pinto •Wise •Ellis •Grayson •Parker •Fannin •Jack •Rains

  7. Nonprofit Organizations

  8. Nonprofit Organizations (NPOs) 24 nonprofit organizations were interviewed. • The majority works primarily in the North Texas area • Some work on a national or global scale in addition to working in North Texas

  9. Advocacy Awareness Conferences Counseling Demand-reduction programs Educational curriculum Empowerment activities Fundraising activities Grant making Internship programs Job training Legal services Main Activities

  10. Main Activities • Life skills programs • Mentoring • Networking • Outreach • Providing shelter for vicitims • Research • Social services • Transitional living assistance • Volunteer mobilization

  11. Activity Focus • Most engaged in the supply-side of human trafficking: work with victims and inform public about human trafficking activity • Demand-side (reduction) activities include awareness in high-risk areas, educational seminars, funding for research, and literature

  12. Gaps in Coverage Gaps in the coverage of human trafficking initiatives mentioned by NPOs include: • Help for minors • Education for first responders and for law enforcement • More emergency shelters • Funding • Survivor-centered service providers • Street gang intervention

  13. Gaps in Coverage • Foster Care System for reform • Homelessness issues • Greater partnerships between organizations • Training for public utility personnel (to identify potential victims) • Immigration resources • Work in immigrant and minority communities and with prostitutes • Victim restoration • Focus on the demand side of human trafficking

  14. Needs The main resource needs of NPOs: • Housing for human trafficking victims • Better technology • Finances • Research • Translation services • Volunteers

  15. Policy Change Suggestions Policy chances suggested by NPOs include: • Decriminalization of victims • Better and mutually-defined terms • More research-oriented work to inform policy

  16. Law Enforcement Agencies

  17. Law Enforcement Agencies Equip the Saints interviewed: • 6 police departments: Arlington, Dallas, Lewisville, Plano, Red Oak, Sherman and Wiley • 3 sheriff departments: Collin County, Dallas County, and Denton County • ICE/Homeland Security Investigations • The Office of the Attorney General of Texas • SAFVIC (Sexual Assault family Violence Investigator Course) and TRIPLE (Training and Research Institute for Professional Law Enforcement) A number of other law enforcement agencies in North Texas were also contacted

  18. Highlights Equip the Saints’ interviewers found that: • Some of the agencies stated that they targeted human trafficking • Departments handling human trafficking include Vice/Narcotics, Covert Operations, Child Exploitation Unit, the North Texas Trafficking Task Force (NTTTF), and Human Trafficking Unit

  19. Highlights • The majority of these had little experience in dealing with trafficked individuals • Few agencies were targeting prostitution or had guidelines in place to handle minors in prostitution • Most agencies worked with other North Texas law enforcement agencies and a few worked with non-law enforcement agencies (NPOs)

  20. Highlights • Only one agency was working under a grant • A few of the agencies focused on sex trafficking while the majority had no specific focus • The smaller law enforcement agencies had no experience in or guidelines for dealing with human trafficking

  21. Needs Needs of law enforcement agencies to assist with human trafficking • Full-time personnel dedicated to human trafficking • Translation and interpretation services • Training •Database of services for vicitms •Services for placing trafficked children

  22. Research and Advocacy

  23. Researchers/Activists Equip the Saints interviewed: •16 activists • 8 of them also identified themselves as researchers currently focusing on human trafficking • Most of them were actively involved with one or more nonprofit organizations

  24. Research Topics Current research topics include: • Community needs • Historical information • White collar crime • Foreign diplomats’ use of domestic forced labor • How to keep workers from being overwhelmed when working with trafficked victims

  25. Research Topics • Aftercare for victims • Domestic trafficking • High-risk juveniles • U.S./Mexico border trafficking

  26. Gaps in Research This group noted gaps in human trafficking research including: • Logistics to stop new traffickers • Family members of victims • Supply and demand in the area of forced labor and economics • Stopping trafficking as a global epidemic

  27. Gaps In Research • Sex trafficking demand solutions • Victim amnesty • Human trafficking as a national (U.S.) problem • Relationship between prostitution and human trafficking • Faith-based and spiritual impact on human trafficking • Human trafficking among tribal and minority groups • Lack of dissemination of information

  28. Activists Activists were involved in many different initiatives including: • Work with carious anti-human trafficking and violence-reduction task forces and coalitions • Work with DNA Prokids • Prevention • Education • Outreach/Awareness • Aftercare • Legal services • Song writing

  29. Policy Change Suggestions Policy changes suggested by researchers and activists include: • Law enforcement training • Teaching youth alternatives to the streets • Dealing with demand for sex trafficking • Definition of terms • Policies that embrace the faith community

  30. Policy Change Suggestions • Victim amnesty • Licensing guidelines for residential homes • Federal funding for safe houses • Legal and social services for victims

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