Group working to educate truck drivers about how to spot human trafficking
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — A non-profit group called “Truckers Against Trafficking” travels across America to educate truck drivers how to spot human trafficking, and their latest stop came at the Kenworth Chillicothe trucking plant Thursday morning. The goal is to have AN extra set of eyes and ears to help law enforcement lock up human traffickers.
TAT was formed in 2009 and the group said it’s helped a lot of victims. “More than 1,100 individuals have been recovered and this is just from the hotline statistics so this is just one slice of the data pie. This doesn’t include those who have called 911 or sheriff’s office,” said TAT Freedom Drivers Project Director Helen Van Dam.
Those tips are crucial when law enforcement can’t be everywhere.
“You think of all the truck drivers that are driving around the United States today and around the world, there’s much more of them than law enforcement. And if they can be the eyes and ears of one simple call, they may find something that we may never know about,” said Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader, who attended the educational training.
Many times the victims can’t speak out. “I was crying out for help but I couldn’t do it because you know I didn’t want to end up dead,” a human trafficking survivor said during one of the TAT’s educational videos. “It’s like they had us completely wrapped, completely controlled to where we were brainwashed.”
The group hopes shedding some light into this dark world will bring about change.
“I had no idea about the scale, the scope, the comparison to modern day slavery, it’s a really scary thing and I think having so many points of contact out there, with their eyes open, spreading the word, the hotline, I think it’s a really important thing that they’re doing,” said the Chillicothe Mayor Luke Feeney.
If you would like more information about TAT you can visit their website here.
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