A meeting of the Tarrant County 5 Stones Taskforce last month featured an organization called Traffick911, which is a nonprofit based in North Texas that offers crisis response and advocacy services to victims of child sex trafficking and their caregivers.
Through 2023, Traffick 911 helped 322 child sex trafficking victims in North Texas, providing some 2,363 services.
Det. Maria Orand of the Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) spoke at the meeting, informing listeners that in July, FWPD had six cases of sex trafficking come through its dedicated unit. One involved a juvenile.
However, in one of the cases, a man was hospitalized and told healthcare workers that he was being trafficked. When FWPD arrived to investigate, it was determined that his claim was not credible.
“We’re hoping that this is not going to be a trend that’s happening because the resources … that we are able to offer, that our advocates are able to offer, they are for our trafficking victims,” said Orand. “We don’t want our trafficking resources to be used for someone that’s not being trafficked.”
Orand added that many of the sex trafficking cases that FWPD worked on during July have since been closed.
Investigator Leticia Estrada with the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office shared that it has been a busy summer for Tarrant County’s human trafficking unit as it has been partnering with multiple cities in North Texas to resolve sex trafficking cases and shut down trafficking operations.
Estrada stated that her agency was actively investigating a tip regarding an illicit massage business, as well as a case in which a repeat sex offender was caught trying to solicit sex from a minor.
Sgt. Tarik Muslimovic from the Arlington Police Department (APD) spoke about APD’s human trafficking unit and discussed best practices for law enforcement investigating such crimes.
APD has five major areas of proactive efforts: victim identification outreach operations, demand suppression operations, online solicitation of minor operations, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cyber tips, and illicit massage business investigations.
Additionally, the unit works to spread education and awareness at schools, hotels, community groups, faith-based organizations, and healthcare centers. APD’s human trafficking unit operates with two main goals in mind: do anything and everything for the victim and put suspects in prison.
Muslimovic noted that APD’s digital forensic detective was critical in the unit’s success in helping sex trafficking survivors in and around Arlington, explaining that the internet and cell phones have changed everything in the human trafficking industry.
The Tarrant County 5 Stones Taskforce hosts meetings on the last Tuesday of every month at 11 a.m.
“The Tarrant County 5 Stones Taskforce is a community network engaged in collaborative efforts to end domestic minor sex trafficking in Tarrant County. This is a combined effort that unifies various levels of government, community agencies, and concerned individuals,” its website states.
For ways you can take action and become involved in preventing and stopping sex trafficking, look here.
In Dallas, sex trafficking has been pervasive in some neighborhoods, especially in Council Member Omar Narvaez’s District 6, which typically logs the most reported cases of prostitution-related offenses, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Relatedly, the Dallas Police Department has been dealing with staffing issues. Only around 3,000 officers are currently in the field, despite a prior City analysis advising that a force of roughly 4,000 is needed to properly police a jurisdiction its size.
The Dallas City Council approved a budget of only $654 million for DPD this fiscal year, considerably less taxpayer money than what is being allocated to public safety in high-crime cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.