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### **Community Policing and Foreign-Born Human Trafficking Victims: Innovation Through Partnerships**

January 2024 | Volume 17 | Issue 1

Among the myriad issues confronting U.S. law enforcement agencies, foreign-born human trafficking presents numerous challenges. As part of a comprehensive grassroots strategy to effectively address these challenges, the Portland (Oregon) Police Bureau (PPB) has developed ongoing partnerships with a variety of stakeholders, including community-based organizations (CBO), immigration attorneys, and foreign government consular offices.

Officers and investigators who encounter foreign-born human trafficking survivors are likely to face one or more significant barriers to establishing trust and communication, each of which traffickers use to exert and maintain control over their victims:
          - Limited English language proficiency
          - Little or no understanding of the U.S. criminal justice system
          - Mistrust of authority figures
          - Fear of deportation or family separation (or both)

Against this backdrop, local and state law enforcement agencies must consider the fundamental question of how best to investigate, disrupt and intervene in human trafficking operations centered on foreign-born victims. Moreover, how can agencies effectively assist the survivors of such trafficking operations?

The PPB has sought to establish trust-based partnerships with a variety of community entities:

            - *Immigration attorneys*  Many foreign-born human trafficking victims in Oregon are citizens of Central and South American countries. Immigration attorneys have proven invaluable partners in PPB’s efforts to identify and document survivors. 
            -  *Foreign government consular offices*  Since 2016, the PPB has actively engaged with the Office of the Mexican Consulate in Portland on the issue of trafficking victims. Given its status as an official government entity and its numerous programs and services, which it is not uncommon for foreign-born trafficking victims to seek, the Consular Office is uniquely positioned to connect with community-based organizations and advocacy groups serving Mexican-national crime victims, and staff members can often readily identify survivors.   The PPB’s partnership with the Mexican Consular Office has created opportunities for officers and investigators to attend legal clinics and other Spanish-language events from which law enforcement personnel have historically been excluded. This, in turn, has allowed PPB representatives to establish contact with potential trafficking survivors in new and innovative settings. As a result, the PPB has gradually come to be viewed by many in local Spanish-speaking immigrant communities as among those organizations involved in the collective effort to serve and support trafficking survivors rather than exclusively as a law enforcement agency.   Another positive outcome of this partnership has been the documentation of several labor trafficking cases that otherwise would not have been reported to the criminal justice system. Successful police department–consular office partnerships will likely promote increased trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement agencies and encourage immigrant community members to report other criminal offenses and violations.  
            -  *Portland State University*  Officer Natasha Haunsperger analyzed labor trafficking cases reported by local immigration attorneys between 2010 and 2015. This analysis revealed that many trafficking victims whom local police officers contacted during the time frame in question did not disclose any information about their victimization. The analysis further revealed that officers did not possess the requisite baseline knowledge of labor trafficking indicators and red flags necessary to identify likely victims. In addition, victims in many reported cases waited, on average, between five and 10 years before seeking assistance from an immigration attorney or providing testimony in furtherance of a law enforcement investigation. Likely factors contributing to such delays include limited English-language proficiency, a lack of understanding of legal rights, and victims’ safety concerns when contacted in the presence of traffickers.    To facilitate better communication between potential trafficking victims and law enforcement officers, the PPB partnered with a marketing lab in Portland State University’s School of Business to create a public awareness campaign: “Red Means Help.” The premise behind the campaign was straightforward: to create, publicize, and implement a system whereby trafficking victims could display a red object and alert law enforcement officers to a human trafficking situation and request assistance via nonverbal communication, i.e., without the need for English-language proficiency.                 - TriMet (Portland-based mass transit agency): An integral component of the “Red Means Help” campaign was the PPB’s partnership with  TriMet , the public agency tasked with providing mass transit services throughout the Portland metro area. TriMet agreed to display campaign posters on its buses and used demographic data algorithms to identify non–English language predominant areas of Portland. This information was used to align foreign-language poster displays with appropriate bus routes throughout the city.
              - Portland Fire Bureau: A second phase of the “Red Means Help” campaign, intended to enlist the assistance of  Portland Fire Bureau  firefighters and paramedics, was stalled in 2020 by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest, both of which necessitated a temporary reshuffling of resources and priorities. The “Red Means Help” campaign is an excellent example of multiple sectors coming together to identify tangible, jurisdiction-unique, and tailored solutions and prevention strategies. 

The PPB’s ongoing efforts to develop, establish, and maintain partnerships with community stakeholders focused on foreign-born human trafficking victims have highlighted several key points:
          - Earning the trust of community stakeholders is a gradual process that requires commitment and dedication as well as the understanding that trust-building is a dynamic, never-ending process. 
          - Public trust in law enforcement agencies is essential to the social contract between communities and their police officers. 
          - Police executives cannot effectively address the problem of human trafficking without developing and adopting culturally specific, community-led initiatives specific to their jurisdictions and the needs of their communities. 

The plight of foreign-born human trafficking victims forces us to re-examine such issues as community safety and shared social responsibilities. The onus is on both police departments and community stakeholders to strive for adaptive, innovative solutions that address human trafficking in ways that go beyond the traditional benchmarks of arrests and convictions.

Police agencies cannot—and should not be expected to—address the problem of human trafficking on their own. They must, however, endeavor to establish trust-based partnerships with appropriate private and public entities and engage with those partners to address the challenges inherent in helping some of the most vulnerable members of our communities: foreign-born victims of human trafficking. 

Natasha HaunspergerCommunity Engagement Lead/OfficerPortland (Oregon) Police Bureau

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