Billboards warning about human trafficking coming to Dallas-Fort Worth
Tarrant County agency officials announced a billboard campaign on Thursday that they hope will educate residents about the dangers that lurk on the internet and social media.
Predators have long used the the internet and social media to engage with vulnerable populations in order to lure them into situations where they can be exploited. The billboard display will feature a girl holding a cellphone and say: “Trafficking Starts Here.”
Clear Channel is donating time on nine digital billboards throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area to create public awareness around the human trafficking issue, said Felicia Grantham, Tarrant County 5-Stones Taskforce founder.
Despite the decades of public education efforts dedicated to stopping human trafficking, educating the public remains one of the needs in the process of helping victims, according to Grantham.
“We really need the awareness from the community,” Grantham said. “This is still a hidden crime. The more people we have who are looking for signs, the more victims we can help.”
Sex trafficking generates an estimated $99 billion each year, making it the second-largest illicit crime industry behind the sale of illegal drugs, according to a lawsuit filed in December by a Tarrant County woman who alleged that hotels are complicit in the sex trafficking industry.
More than 60% of sex trafficking offenses occur in hotel chains, while eight out of 10 arrests for human trafficking occur in or around hotels, the lawsuit says.
“Human trafficking is a particularly vile crime,” said Fort Worth Police Chief Edwin Kraus. “It preys on the most vulnerable in our society — those that are seeking love, seeking acceptance, seeking money — and once they are caught up in this, they receive none of that. They are used as a product for the profits of the trafficker.”
Many of the victims of human trafficking are betrayed by their relatives, families, close associates and others they should have been able to depend on to protect them, said Judge Brent Carr, another presenter at the Tim Curry Justice Center, where the announcement was made.
Carr put together the Tarrant County RISE (Reaching Independence through Self-Empowerment) Program, which is dedicated to identifying those involved in prostitution and making resources available to them that will divert them away from the criminal justice system.
“Sometimes we have people in our justice system that pose no threat to the community, but they are the product of years of torment and victimization and we need to do better,” Carr said.
Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn said some people he talks to about human trafficking still believe he is talking about an activity that occurs in some exotic country miles away.
“We need everybody involved if we are going to take this scourge and run it out of the Tarrant County area,” Waybourn said.
Those who wish to get involved in the Tarrant County 5-Stones Taskforce effort can attend a meeting between 11 a.m. and noon on the last Tuesday of every month at 1000 Calvert St. in Fort Worth or visit the 5-Stones Taskforce website. For more information on how to get involved in the anti-trafficking effort, call 817-392-4533.
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 2:56 PM.
