by Michael Lyle
If Nevada wants to do a better job protecting people from human trafficking, state lawmakers should look beyond the Las Vegas Strip, a mental health provider says.
Jessica Kay, a licensed social worker and trafficking survivor, told state lawmakers that while Nevada has taken steps to address sex trafficking and exploitation, gaps in data collection and how law enforcement responds to some cases of sexual assault and assault make it difficult for Southern Nevada to determine how widespread the problem may be.
“We need better systems to track violent incidents from the hotel room to the courtroom,” Kay said. “Right now, it’s really difficult to follow an incident from metro police reports to court records, to jail records. These gaps prevent us from identifying violence, exploitation, trafficking and repeat offenders.”
More needs to be done to collect data to identify who believes which hotels are trafficking hotspots.
This includes reviewing events at “off-Strip” casinos geared toward locals.
Kay made her comments to lawmakers last month during an interim legislative committee focused on housekeeping workers.
Kay told lawmakers she reviewed 77 human trafficking cases that were initially reported as child molestation, sexual abuse or abuse and neglect. Among the cases, which date back to the last six years, there were instances when the same hotel – in some cases even the same room – was involved in multiple cases.”
More needs to be done to connect the dots because “too often the big questions aren’t asked right away,” he said.
“Who booked the room? How long has the victim been here? Who is coming and going? Is this connected to a larger trafficking operation?” What is an example of an unanswered question? “The infrastructure to ask these questions exists, but the habits and sometimes the systems don’t.”
Another problem with identifying trafficked minors in local casinos is that they blend into their surroundings, he said, adding that “minors are a natural part of the environment, as opposed to strip properties.”
“Neighboring casino resorts are community destinations,” he said. “Many victims don’t look the way people expect trafficking victims to look. They walk into casinos like teenagers, sit in food courts, play arcades, and slip between hotel rooms unnoticed.”
A child who worked with him told him he would meet his trafficker “in the food court of a local casino hotel” before going upstairs. Common scenarios are often overlooked.
Casino employees who spoke during public comment expressed concern about not knowing how to report suspected fraud.
Jolene Reyes, who works as a porter on the Strip, said there have been times when girls as young as 15 come into the restroom “crying and scared, but then leave to meet older men waiting outside.”
Tommy Principe, who works as a bellman and limo driver on the Strip, said he is often approached by young women asking for directions to a certain room. An hour later, they were leaving the property.
“In my mind, I think it’s questionable,” Princip told lawmakers. “The training the company has always given is that they are guests and it’s none of our business. There’s no system that I know of or have been trained in. I don’t know if I think it’s sex trafficking.”
While Kay believed the state had made significant progress — she added that the state was better positioned to help survivors of trafficking than it was in 2004 when she was trafficked — Nevada still has many “critical pieces of the puzzle” that are missing from policy discussions.
Lawmakers have repeatedly said survivors need to do more Strong protection for survivorsSome are often prosecuted despite being victims.
The state as a whole, particularly in Southern Nevada, lacks housing for adult trafficking survivors, as well as a lack of clinicians specifically trained to help survivors, Kay said.
He added that casinos are hot spots for detecting trafficking because of how quickly law enforcement detects a case.
“How many reports of child molestation, sexual abuse, abuse, neglect, runaways, or missing teenagers connected to a property must be collected before someone steps back and asks if something bigger is going on?” who asked “If we can’t connect the data, we can’t fully understand the scope of harm that’s happening on these properties, and we can’t develop effective strategies to protect our most vulnerable community members.”
Nevada Current Part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. The Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact editor Hugh Jackson with questions: (email protected).
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republished With permission from Nevada Current
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Photo credit: splash
