Friday, August 12, 2011
Area residents are invited to attend the Aug. 16 seminar in Wesley Chapel.
Pasco County residents who want to learn more about human trafficking and its impacts on the community will get their chance next Tuesday. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office is teaming up with the Clearwater Tampa Bay Area Task Force on Human Trafficking and the Department of Homeland Security to offer an awareness seminar in Wesley Chapel, said Pasco County Cpl. Alan Wilkett. “Human trafficking has been called the invisible crime,” Wilkett said. “It has a tendency to happen out in the open, and unless we become aware as a community (and learn) what to look for, it will continue right out in the open.” Tuesday’s meeting takes place at Victorious Life Church, 6224 Old Pasco Rd., in Wesley Chapel. It starts at 7 p.m. and is open to anyone who…
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Just because there hasn’t been a big case here yet doesn’t mean the crime trend hasn’t arrived.
A teenage girl walked through a Lutz neighborhood on an October day in 2010. While there was nothing unusual about the act on the surface, this case was very unusual, said Pasco County Sheriff’s Detective D. Boyer, who is also a member of the Clearwater Tampa Bay Area Task Force On Human Trafficking. This girl didn’t live in the neighborhood and she was clothed only in a bra and panties. Alarmed, neighbors called the sheriff’s office. They were right to do so, Boyer said. As it turned out, the girl, only 13 at the time, was a human trafficking victim authorities in Maryland were looking for. While full details of that case are not available for release, Boyer said the girl, a runaway, had been trafficked in Maryland, came to Florida, and …
The Bay area has seen a number of cases in recent history.
As human trafficking continues to grow on a global scale, local law enforcement and federal agencies are pooling their resources to crack down on the crime. The Clearwater Police Department was awarded a U.S. Department of Justice grant in 2006 to create the Clearwater Tampa Bay Area Task Force on Human Trafficking. This multi-agency task force, which includes the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, has been involved in a number of cases since its inception. As of January 2011, the task force has made 104 arrests and has successfully had 37 convictions, according to its website. Some of the more recent cases the task force has been involved with in the Tampa Bay area include: The Hunt For Eric Antwan Bell This convicted felon is accused of …
Signs to watch out for and other ways people can help fight back against modern-day slavery.
Every 30 seconds a human being is sold, bought or forced into slavery. That, according to Pasco County Circuit Court Judge Lynn Tepper, is reason for alarm. It is estimated there are 27 million human trafficking victims worldwide with about 2.5 million living in plain sight in the United States alone. Tepper said an estimated 300,000 people are forced into prostitution yearly in America. This number, however, is likely low, she said. “It’s guesstimated, it’s doubled,” Tepper said. Human trafficking is a crime that involves the commercial use and exploitation of people who are forced into the sex trade or other forms of servitude for the gain of another. The crime can involve “forced prostitution and pornography, involuntary labor, …
Sherri Lonon
9:33 am on Friday, July 15, 2011
Thanks everyone for the comments. We will keep up with this issue and gather more information on how residents can help. more ›