By Maridith Yahl
NKyTribune reporter
Human trafficking is a problem no community can ignore, says the leader of a local group dedicated to fighting the global crisis.
“We can’t turn a blind eye anymore to the ways in which certain human beings take unfair and willful advantage of other human beings without regard to gender, without regard to color, or culture,” says Sharlene Boltz, co-chair of the Regional Initiative Guiding Human Trafficking Services (RIGHTS), a task force created to educate the public about human trafficking. She’s also a law professor at Northern Kentucky University.
Sharlene Boltz
The task force was formed in 2018 by a group of colleagues who had experience working with domestic violence and sexual assault victims. RIGHTS promotes itself as a resource for law enforcement agencies and others who confront human trafficking in Northern Kentucky.
RIGHTS members include St. Elizabeth Healthcare, Northern Kentucky University, the Offices of the Commonwealth Attorney in Campbell, Kenton, and Boone counties, along with local law enforcement agencies and the Salvation Army of Greater Cincinnati—End Slavery Cincinnati, Women’s Crisis Center and Xavier University.
Statewide, Attorney General Daniel Cameron has taken on human trafficking through special task forces and, most recently, the Your Eyes Save Lives campaign. Senator Wil Schroder was a champion of House Bill 2, passed by the General Assembly in 2020 that updated Kentucky’s human trafficking laws.
Nationwide, sex and labor trafficking statistics are underreported, according to advocates. But the National Human Trafficking Hotline reports that in 2019 they witnessed a nearly 20 percent increase in the victims and survivors who contacted them directly. The hotline reported 11,500 situations of human trafficking in 2019 — a 5 percent increase from the previous year. Regional numbers for northern Kentucky were not available, but 136 cases were reported statewide.
From the Attorney General’s website
Human trafficking is typically seen as connected to sex workers and prostitution, but Boltz said it’s also associated with those wanting cheap labor, from those who employ farmworkers to domestic workers.
Traffickers typically seek out their victims at bus stops, shopping malls, places where kids hang out — and are without any adults around, according to Boltz, who said they also use fictitious ads online for work with claims of good pay to attract victims, who are then forced into engaging in sex or working without pay to pay off their traffickers.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, tracking traffickers has become more difficult because they can hide on the Internet and avoid law enforcement.
In Northern Kentucky, RIGHTS organizers want to see more police and hospital staff trained to recognize human trafficking victims because they are more likely to encounter trafficking victims than other professions. She said some victims can be as young as 11 years of age and forced into prostitution by traffickers, who prey on those who are runaways or abuse victims.
“As I tell my officers [in training] all the time, prostitution isn’t a career aspiration. It is something you end up in because of other levels of abuse,” said Boltz.
When identifying human traffickers, Boltz said the public needs to know that they can be almost anyone.
“I say predators are all among us,” she said.
Boltz said the task force created a public resource guide for the community to help understand human trafficking. Since publication of the guide almost three years ago, Boltz said that the task force has data that shows hospitals are better at identifying and alerting officials about potential trafficking victims.
As many as 100 people, on average, are being identified as trafficking victims annually in Northern Kentucky, according to Boltz.
Boltz said anyone who suspects human trafficking or are victims of human trafficking can contact law enforcement authorities or the National Human Trafficking Hotline number, 1-888-373-7888. The hotline also accepts text messages.
The RIGHTS task force meets every other month. Its next meeting is February 16. Meetings are open to the public. Anyone interested in getting on the group’s email list or attending the Zoom meeting can send an email request to Boltz at BOLTZS1@nku.edu.
