GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY — A Northern Michigan group that combats and brings awareness to human trafficking is hoping to educate the community on the signs of the crime that they say affects people from all walks of life.
Linda Solem is on the board that started the Coalition to Combat Human Trafficking. She said they will start training community partners in Grand Traverse County, starting next month.
“We have Cherry Festival. That is really, really big. And we have different car shows, different things like that. That’s when people will tend to come to Traverse City the most is during those busy times,” said Solem.
She said tourists aren’t the only ones coming to Northern Michigan during those busy times.
“Sometimes they’re recognized, sometimes not. But as soon as the event is over, they’re taken out of the area. So there has to be a concentrated effort. We still need to be a little bit more educated on what that might look like,” said Solem.
She said it can be hard to identify a victim of human trafficking but there are signs.
Solem said the coalition will be offering training to groups like prosecutors, hotels and tourism groups, medical professionals, child advocacy groups, and many more, starting in February.
“This particular training is for different sectors of our communities so they can come together, learn what human trafficking is, and what it isn’t. So, we can better address the issue,” said Solem.
Daniel Nash, a retired state trooper from Missouri, will be training local and state police through his company called, Human Trafficking Training Center, starting this summer.
Nash said a recent survey found that only 17% of law enforcement get any sort of training at all, and only 8% is skills based.
“I don’t think people realize that law enforcement is not trained to handle human trafficking. They don’t understand necessarily how to even recognize it or identify it, and then what to do once they find it,” said Nash.
Nash also said there’s a misconception that smaller departments don’t get the proper training but that’s not always the case.
“It’s your larger police departments. It’s state police agencies. It’s federal agencies. Most people think, ‘oh, the FBI, they probably understanding of trafficking’. The FBI gets none. Not one minute of human trafficking training in their academy,” said Nash.
Grand Traverse County Commissioner, Darryl Nelson also a part of the coalition, said the public needs to be aware just how common this is.
“Any community that has a lot of tourism, a lot of hotels is at risk for this. I think people need to understand that it’s happening and it’s happening here. And it’s a big business,” said Nelson.