Sunday, November 13, 2011 9:19 am EST
The qualities that make Tennessee a desirable location for businesses—proximity to large cities and a network of interstate roads—are the same factors that draw the people whose business is human sex trafficking.
| Tennessee Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline 1-855-55-TNHTH or 1-855-558-4684 |
A recently released report by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation showed that human trafficking and sex slavery is more common in Tennessee than authorities have believed, TBI director Mark Gwyn. The city's geographical position to Atlanta and the large number of interstates that cross the state are conducive to a traveling business, the study says.
"In Tennessee, 85 percent of the (99) counties reported at least one instance of human sex trafficking in the last 24 months," Gwyn said during the launch of a publicity campaign for a new hotline number for victims. "Over 70 percent of those cases were minors."
The number of cases reported in Hamilton County were between 26 to 50 cases in that period, according to the study, a fact that surprised Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd.
"The study took us by surprise," Dodd said. "We're concerned that this is happening here but it's not being reported to us."
The Women's Fund of Greater Chattanooga coordinated a coalition of local organizations that provide services for victims to join in getting the word out about the 24-hour, seven-days a week hotline, mandated by the state legislature in 2010 as part of an effort to combat human trafficking.
"Human trafficking, including the trafficking of underage girls for sex, is modern day slavery and it is growing not just around the world but in our own communities," said Lorie Street Mallchok, chairman of the Women's Fund. "This new hotline may be the beginning of a way out for young girls - but only if they, and well meaning people they may come in contact with, know about it."
Special-Agent-In Charge Margie Quin of the Nashville TBI office said many people do not believe it happens in their communities. Some may think of it only happens in foreign countries but Georgia state investigators recently rescued a 16-year-old girl who became ensnared in a sex trafficking ring after she ran away from her Nashville home a year ago, she said.
"She was just 15 when she left home," Quin said. "We found her in Georgia and the GBI set up a sting and took her into custody."
By the time they found her, she had been forced to work as a prostitute in Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta, Quin said. TBI found her being advertized for sale on the internet.
"Traffickers start out 'grooming,' them, or romancing them," Quin said. "They buy them clothes, pretend to be their boyfriends. Some of (the traffickers) are gorilla pimps, the ones who beat them and mistreat them. This girl said that is the kind of pimp she had in Chattanooga."
Other partners in the effort calling attention to the hotline number were state Sen. Bo Watson, R-Chattanooga, and Sandra Hollett, executive director for the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults.
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