New Resources for Combating Human Trafficking

photo of little both with text that reads: Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world.
“I call on every nation, every community, and every individual to fight human trafficking wherever it exists. Let us declare as one that slavery has no place in our world, and let us finally restore to all people the most basic rights of freedom, dignity, and justice.”i

President Obama called “upon businesses, national and community organizations, faith-based groups, families, and all Americans to recognize the vital role we can play in ending all forms of slavery…”ii in his presidential proclamation during the National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. In the spirit of this call for action, the Coordination, Collaboration, Capacity: Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States, 2013-2017 was released by the White House on January 14, 2014 at the Office for Victims of Crime's Human Trafficking Survivor Forum and Listening Session.

This five-year plan commits the federal government to four goals, which encompass eight objectives and more than 250 associated action items. The four goals are:

  • Goal 1: Align Efforts: Promote a strategic, coordinated approach to the provision of services for victims of human trafficking at the federal, regional, state, territorial, tribal, and local levels.
  • Goal 2: Improve Understanding: Expand and coordinate human trafficking-related research, data, and evaluate to support evidence-based practices in victim services.
  • Goal 3: Expand Access to Services: Provide and promote outreach, training, and technical assistance to increase victim identification and expand the availability of services.
  • Goal 4: Improve Outcomes: Promote effective, culturally appropriate, trauma-informed services that improve the short- and long-term health, safety, and well-being of victims.iii

photo of a woman with a barcode on her foreheadThe COPS Office was one of numerous agencies that worked on the plan, and some action items specifically of law enforcement interest include:

  • Develop a Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Toolkit for Law Enforcement
  • Provide training and technical assistance resources, including roll call videos, training materials, and speakers to national law enforcement membership organizations
  • Produce and distribute two roll call videos for state and local law enforcement that explain how immigration benefits can benefit investigations
  • Revise and deliver training to federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local law enforcement
  • Produce a T visa resource guide for law enforcement and provide U visa resource guide
  • Provide general awareness training for first responder communities
  • Conduct investigative trainings for law enforcement personnel
  • Update and enhance the Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Strategy and Operations e-Guide, including strategies for outreach and awareness
  • Design and deliver a human trafficking training for tribal law enforcement iv

Although this is a five-year plan, there are still resources available now from the COPS Office:

And resources from other agencies:

As part of the COPS Office commitment to combating human trafficking, we provide resources and pertinent information through our various medias, so please stay connected to the COPS Office by subscribing to the Dispatch, subscribing to The Beat podcasts, liking the COPS Office Facebook, following the COPS Office Twitter, and checking in on the COPS Office website.

Nazmia Alqadi
The COPS Office

i Barack Obama, Presidential Proclamation – National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, 2014, www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/12/31/presidential-proclamation-national-slavery-and-human-trafficking-prevent.
ii Ibid.
iii www.ovc.gov/pubs/FederalHumanTraffickingStrategicPlan.pdf
iv Ibid.

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