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### **The Intersection of Local Law Enforcement and Labor Trafficking**

 January 2018 | Volume 11 | Issue 1

The crimes  of human trafficking are gaining more awareness within law enforcement and the  communities they serve. Nevertheless there still seems to be a gap in  understanding labor trafficking and the role local law enforcement play in the  prevention and response.

According  to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act  of 2000, labor  trafficking is defined as: 
> 
“The  recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for  labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose  of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.”1

 Within  labor trafficking, there are different forms that could be categorized  generally into bonded labor/debt bondage, forced labor, and child labor.
          - Bonded  labor/debt bondage: When labor is demanded from a victim “as a means of  repayment for a loan or service in which its terms and conditions have not been  defined or in which the value of the victims’ services as reasonably assessed  is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt”. 1
          - Forced  labor: Forced labor occurs when “victims are forced to work against their own  will, under the threat of violence or some other form of punishment, their  freedom is restricted and a degree of ownership is exerted.” 2
          - Child  labor: When force, fraud, and/or coercion is used on children to perform “a  form of work that is likely to be hazardous to the health and/or physical,  mental, spiritual, moral or social development of children and can interfere with  their education”. 1

Labor  trafficking can occur in every industry, but the following industries are  especially vulnerable: agricultural/farm work, cleaning services, construction,  domestic servitude, and factory work. It is important to note that labor trafficking  is not human smuggling; trafficking does not require transportation nor  movement across borders and is not voluntary. While human smuggling takes place  internationally, a smuggling situation can change to a human trafficking  situation based on the details of the incident.

**Magnitude**          Human  trafficking is a hidden crime and at times, labor trafficking crimes can be  difficult to identify. Like other hidden crimes, it is difficult to understand  the true magnitude of labor trafficking; however, there are some data systems  that can illustrate a piece of the problem.

Since  2007, the National Human Trafficking Resource  Center hotline has received substantive, US-based  phone calls, e-mails, and online tip reports on 6,115 cases with 2,507 victims  and survivors identified.3 While looking at the 2016 Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform  Crime Reporting (UCR) data, state and local law enforcement  reported 1,196 total offenses in 2016, with 189 classified as involuntary servitude.4 It  is important to note that this data is only reported by state and local law  enforcement agencies that currently have the ability to report the data to the  national UCR Program.5

From a  global perspective, it is “estimated that in 2016, approximately 40.3 million  people are in modern slavery, including 24.9 in forced labor and 15.4 million  in forced marriage.”6 Focusing  on the 24.9 victims of forced labor, “16 million people are exploited in the  private sector such as domestic work, construction, or agriculture.”

In  addition, a study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that, out of human  trafficking incidents between January 2008 and June 2010, 13.9 percent of  incidents were labor trafficking, which the remainder were sex trafficking.8 In  the same study, researchers found that federal agencies were  more likely to lead the investigations of labor trafficking while state and  local agencies led sex trafficking investigations,9 local law enforcement still plays a role of identification and response especially because they understand their community best. Below, a couple of suggestions are described in order  to spur action at the local level.

**Understand the Indicators of Human Trafficking**It is  important to understand how to identify a potential trafficking victim and  situation. Providing awareness training and tools to help with the indicators  is vital. One good resource is the Department of Homeland Security  Blue Campaign,  which provides human trafficking awareness training that may be beneficial for  law enforcement to get a basic understanding of the scope. Some indicators for  local law enforcement to be aware of include:
          - Does  the victim act fearful, anxious, depressed, submissive, tense, or  nervous/paranoid?
          - Does  the victim defer to another person to speak for him or her?
          - Has  the victim been harmed or deprived of food, water, sleep, medical care, or  other life necessities?
          - Does  the victim have freedom of movement?
          - Does  the victim work excessively long and/or unusual hours?
          - Was  the victim recruited for one purpose and forced to engage in some other job? 10
          - Does  the potential victim have access to their identification and legal documents?

**Provide Tools for Officers**          Understanding  the indicators is a good first step, but officers need the tools to understand  what to do following the identification. Per the State Department’s *Trafficking in Persons Report*,  the recommendations  for the United States include “increase investigation and prosecution of labor  trafficking cases and cases involving nonviolent forms of coercion.”11 Agencies need to ensure that officers have the tools to successfully respond  and investigate labor trafficking cases. These tools can include training,  checklists, and protocols.

A National  Institute of Justice study in 2006 found that 32 percent of respondents  identified a human trafficking case while investigating another case.12 This  demonstrates the importance of all personnel needing the proper tools and  resources to be able to identify a human trafficking case.

Two  examples of law enforcement tools include:
          - International  Association of Chiefs of Police’s (IACP) “protocol for successful interviews”  related to human trafficking 13
          - The  Vera Institute developed and validated “ Trafficking Victim Identification  Tool ” which  assists law enforcement in identifying sex and labor trafficking victims

**Identify Resources in your Community**          Building  and strengthening partnerships is important to ensure that law enforcement officers  have the resources they need for identifying and responding to labor  trafficking cases. Non-profits and non-governmental organizations are able to  provide resources for victims and survivors such as language services,  shelters, training, and general victim assistance. Creating a list of resources  will  provide officers and opportunity to  open a dialogue with  individuals in a  potential case and helps the officer know  that  victims have knowledge   of services  that the agency may not be able to provide.

For  assistance in finding resources in your local community, the National Human Trafficking Referral  Directory provides  an online directory of social service providers and resources across the  country.

**Implement Proactive Approaches**          Local law  enforcement can use problem solving approaches to begin to identify proactive  approaches to combat labor trafficking. This can include identifying vulnerable  industries within their community and opening up lines of communication to  understand recruitment practices and the working environment. Alternatively, it  can include covert stings to identify potential victims and traffickers. IACP  published a blog post, “It’s Happening Here: Identifying  Partners for Proactive Labor Trafficking Investigations”, that includes some ideas of  proactive approaches.

**Create a Task Force**          Formalizing  a working partnership in the creation of a task force may be beneficial for jurisdictions.  A task force can help with information sharing, intelligence, resources, and  cooperation. The Department of Justice’s Office of Victims of Crime and Bureau  of Justice Assistance developed a *Human Trafficking  Task Force e-Guide*to assist agencies with forming a task force as well  as support for existing task forces.

**Raise Community Awareness**          Finally,  it is vital for local law enforcement to provide awareness to the community in  general. One article “Modern slavery: Labor trafficking  is everywhere and nowhere,”  illustrates how awareness can trigger contact with law enforcement on potential  labor trafficking cases. Community awareness can not only encompass general outreach but also tailored information for a  specific audience such as schools, businesses,  and hotels. Other examples of  industry-specific awareness include the Association of Flight Attendants Stop Human Trafficking Campaign and Truckers Against Trafficking.

For more  information on Federal Government Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking, please  visit https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/resources/federal-efforts.

Nazmia E.A. Comrie          Senior Program Specialist

References:1https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/resource/fact-sheet-labor-trafficking-english3https://humantraffickinghotline.org/type-trafficking/labor-trafficking7https://humantraffickinghotline.org/type-trafficking/labor-trafficking5https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/additional-publications/human-trafficking/table-16http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm8https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cshti0810.pdf9https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cshti0810.pdf10https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/blue-campaign/materials/infosheet-human-trafficking-101/bc-infosheet-human-trafficking-101-english.pdf11https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/271345.pdf12https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/216547.pdf13http://www.theiacp.org/portals/0/pdfs/CompleteHTGuide.pdf,  page 11

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