Heather Wagers, Executive Director, TAPP

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reports that one in six missing children are approached by a human trafficker within the first 48 hours of disappearing. “In 2021, there were 337,195 reports of missing persons involving youth entered into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Crime Information Center (NCIC). A total of 521,705 missing person reports were submitted to NCIC, of those 93,718 records remained active as of December 31, 2021. Youth accounted for 32 percent of those active missing persons records.”

In Kentucky in 2022, according to the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General, “3,700 Kentucky children were reported missing, making them vulnerable to predatory adults, drugs, and violent crimes.” Recognizing a need for awareness and prevention, in 2023, the Office of Trafficking and Abuse Prevention and Prosecution (TAPP) in Kentucky launched a statewide missing child awareness campaign titled It Saves to Know. The campaign, supported by COPS Office funding, seeks to combat human trafficking by mobilizing Kentuckians to recognize signs that a child may run away and empowers community members and caregivers with tools and resources to prevent runaways. In addition to providing online tools and resources, from September 6–8, 2022, the TAPP Office hosted a training geared toward social service and law enforcement professionals to provide important tools and resources focused on sex trafficking prevention, the identification of risk factors and stressors that contribute to youth runaways, and information about conducting successful missing persons and trafficking investigations.

Training day one featured presentations that were geared toward social service professionals. Samantha Sigler with the Children’s Advocacy Center of Green River District provided a wealth of information about prosocial relationships and their ability to reduce the risk of a child running away or becoming a victim of child sex trafficking. Any child is at risk for being trafficked; however, youth who lack strong support systems, in addition to those who experience other risk factors like homelessness or violence, have an increased risk of being trafficked.

Service providers’ awareness of risk factors, as well as positive supports, can enable them to be proactive when addressing runaway or sex trafficking risks. Sonja Grey from the Exploited Children’s Help Organization (ECHO) led a presentation on how communities can become aware of signs of child abuse, as it is a significant risk factor for youth to become victims of trafficking. Often, traffickers can leverage the abuse youth experience at home into an opportunity to encourage them to run away. Awareness of signs of abuse can provide an opportunity for prevention through the ability to connect abused children with resources.

NCMEC was present during all three days of the training. Leemie Kahng-Sofer, Debra Hart, and Donald Mullikin provided information about upcoming legislation related to child sex exploitation; resources provided by NCMEC; the importance of prevention through education; and Team Adam, a team of retired law enforcement professionals deployed to sites of critical abduction and missing children incidents. NCMEC provided social service and law enforcement professionals with information about case management services, as well as prevention tools to mitigate the risk of children becoming exploited. In addition, Alicia Parham and Annisha Dunaway from Homeland Security Investigations provided training on using a victim-centered approach to support the identifications of perpetrators of trafficking and stabilization of victims during the investigation process.

The TAPP training provided significant resources and information to social services and law enforcement professionals in Kentucky to work toward enhancing awareness and prevention efforts across the state as a part of its It Saves to Know campaign.

Ebonyque Taylor
Social Science Analyst
COPS Office

Images courtesy of the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General.

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