The Dallas Police Department, along with Blue Heart DFW and the North Texas Coalition Against Human Trafficking, are partnering again to bring awareness to end human trafficking.

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day is recognized each year on January 11th.

What is Human Trafficking?
• Exploiting a person through force, fraud or coercion
• Sex trafficking, forced labor and domestic servitude
• Any person under the age of 18 involved in a commercial sex act

Human Trafficking happens everywhere, even in the North Texas. Victims can be US Citizens or any nationality, age, socioeconomic status, or gender.

According to Blue DFW, in 2019, the National Trafficking Hotline identified 11,500 cases of Human Trafficking in the United States.

More than 75% of these cases involve sex work and women are not the only victims of human trafficking. Almost 20% of identified victims are men and boys, and almost 1 in 4 victims of trafficking are children.

It is important to know the signs of human trafficking.
According to the Department of State, while this is not an exhaustive list, these are some key red flags that could alert you to a potential trafficking situation that should be reported:
• Living with employer
• Poor living conditions
• Multiple people in cramped space
• Inability to speak to individual alone
• Answers appear to be scripted and rehearsed
• Employer is holding identity documents
• Signs of physical abuse
• Submissive or fearful
• Unpaid or paid very little

If you believe you have identified someone in a trafficking situation, you should alert law enforcement immediately at the numbers provided below.

In an emergency call 911.

Otherwise, the National Human Trafficking Hotline is confidential, toll-free, and staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1 (888) 373-7888.