Labor Trafficking Videos
- What is Labor Trafficking? (2:45)
- Labor Trafficking Victim Characteristics (1:45)
- “Red Flag” Indicators of Labor Trafficking (3:15)
- Considerations for Law Enforcement Executives (3:45)
- Labor Trafficking Versus Labor Exploitation (4:30)
- “Red Flag” Indicators for Patrol (3:15)
- Reasons Victims May Be Uncomfortable Speaking with Authorities (2:00)
- Agencies That Can Provide Assistance in Identifying and Combating Labor Trafficking (4:00)
- The Survivor’s Perspective (2:30)
- How Can I Help? (1:45)
- Providing Assistance to Labor Trafficking Survivors (4:45)
Labor trafficking is a crime that involves compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or services and affects persons of all ages, races, genders, and nationalities. Labor traffickers often prey on those with vulnerable life circumstances and economic hardships. Labor trafficking victims can be found in legal and illegal labor industries, as well as hidden behind closed doors and in plain view.
Partnerships to Address Labor Trafficking Toolkit
The resources in this toolkit assist law enforcement, businesses, communities, and other stakeholders in identifying, responding to, and addressing labor trafficking, as well as in supporting its victims and survivors. Click on the audience category to find relevant resources.
PUBLICATIONS: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Labor Trafficking Toolkit Fact Sheet: Law Enforcement
This fact sheet provides an overview of the toolkit/resource center and contents available through this project to be shared with law enforcement.
10 Things Executives Need to Know About Labor Trafficking
This handout covers 10 key facts and considerations for law enforcement executives related to addressing labor trafficking issues in their communities. This resource can be shared with city officials for law enforcement to seek city leadership buy-in and support.
Implementing a Victim-Centered, Trauma-Informed Approach to Address Labor Trafficking for Law Enforcement Executives
This handout helps commanders understand how to implement a victim-centered, trauma-informed approach in labor trafficking investigations and mind-set changes that need to occur.
Interviewing Labor Trafficking Victims: Victim-Centered Considerations for Law Enforcement Investigators
This resource provides practical lessons learned on conducting interviews with victims to ensure a safe and comfortable environment, including sample questions for investigators and considerations in working with interpreters, victim advocates, and attorneys.
Working With Interpreters: Considerations for Law Enforcement Investigators
This resource provides practical considerations for law enforcement on using interpreters in labor trafficking investigations.
Investigating Labor Trafficking: Determining Jurisdiction and Interview Questions
This resource provides considerations for investigating labor trafficking cases, including example questions during victim interviews to gather information about a case.
Investigating Labor Trafficking in Tribal Communities (Handout)
This resource provides specific considerations for investigating labor trafficking cases in Native American and tribal communities, including example questions during victim interviews to gather information about a case.
Indicators of Labor Trafficking for Patrol
This resource provides a tool for patrol officers to keep in vehicles with example indicators of labor trafficking and suspicious behavior of traffickers, along with blank spaces for agencies to enter contact information for local detectives and federal contacts whom line officers should contact.
Indicators of Labor Trafficking: Law Enforcement Dispatch
This infographic helps dispatchers identify victims of labor trafficking, as well as contact information to report suspected trafficking incidents.
Life Cycle of a Labor Trafficking Case (Infographic)
This resource provides a visual of how a labor trafficking case evolves, from recruitment to work.
WEBINARS: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Using Multidisciplinary Victim-Centered Techniques to Investigate Labor Trafficking
Webinar Recording Date: 10/24/19
This webinar examines several cases to identify the components of a successful labor trafficking investigation.
Partnerships to Address Labor Trafficking: How to Build a Multidisciplinary Team
Webinar Recording Date: 2/20/20
This webinar summarizes two labor trafficking cases from the prosecution perspective, types of places where labor trafficking has occurred in the United States, and what factors contribute to successful conviction/case outcomes.
Life Cycle of a Labor Trafficking Case
Webinar Recording Date: 6/3/20
This webinar identifies several processes involved in a labor trafficking investigation.
Emerging and Promising Practices in Communications Regarding Labor Trafficking
Webinar Recording Date: 1/28/21
This webinar examines several cases to identify the components of a successful labor trafficking investigation.
Evolving Trends in Labor Trafficking Cases
Webinar Recording Date: 9/2/21
This webinar brings together some of the country’s leading experts in service provision, law, and social work to discuss best practices, approaches to avoid, and strategies to achieve survivor success long after a prosecution has ended.
VIDEOS: LAW ENFORCEMENT
What is Labor Trafficking?
In communities across the United States and throughout the world, millions of people are exploited by forced labor. This video provides an introduction to labor trafficking, including the common industries and places where it occurs, and the conditions in which victims are forced to work.
Labor Trafficking Victim Characteristics
Victims are often hidden in plain sight and may regularly interact with the public but be afraid to ask for help. This video highlights the common characteristics of labor trafficking victims and how their traffickers use verbal, physical, and psychological abuse to control them.
Red Flag Indicators of Labor Trafficking
The indicators of labor trafficking may not be the settings themselves but, rather, may be evident through the conditions and circumstances observed in the victim. This video highlights several common red flag indicators of labor trafficking to strengthen victim identification and rescue.
Considerations for Law Enforcement Executives
Labor trafficking is a clear and present danger in many communities nationwide and a catalyst for numerous illegal activities. This video provides law enforcement executives with an overview of the associated crimes of labor trafficking that may occur within their jurisdictions and how their commitment to making labor trafficking an investigative priority can enhance victim identification.
Labor Trafficking Versus Labor Exploitation
Labor trafficking and labor exploitation are both serious and damaging crimes, infringing on victims’ basic human rights and rights under the law. This video provides law enforcement patrol and investigators with the key differences between labor trafficking and labor exploitation for enhanced case identification and investigation and to provide more appropriate and essential services to victims.
Red Flag Indicators for Patrol
Officers and deputies should be aware that the indicators of labor trafficking may not be the settings themselves but, rather, may be evident through the conditions and circumstances observed in the victim. This video provides law enforcement patrol an overview of the red flag indicators of labor trafficking for enhanced victim and case identification.
Reasons Victims May Be Uncomfortable Speaking With Authorities
Many victims of labor trafficking may be hesitant or unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement and authorities because of significant psychological and emotional abuse and control, fear of retaliation and immigration consequences, and a lack of trust in the criminal justice system. This video highlights some common reasons why victims may be hesitant or unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement and offers recommendations that investigators may take into consideration to ensure successful foreign victim interviews.
Agencies That Can Provide Assistance in Identifying and Combating Labor Trafficking
It is essential that law enforcement agencies start by identifying collaborative local, state, and federal partners to enhance responses to labor trafficking and uncover cases more accurately within their jurisdictions. This video highlights the numerous agencies and organizations that likely encounter victims and their traffickers or criminal organizations.
The Survivor’s Perspective
Research engaging survivors has indicated that personal and family safety are often the most pressing concerns they have after their periods of exploitation have ended. This video illustrates the perceptions of justice among survivors of sex trafficking and labor trafficking so that investigators can more appropriately respond to and offer resources and services to trafficking victims.
Providing Assistance to Labor Trafficking Survivors
Social service providers play an important role in helping victims of labor trafficking restore their lives. This video highlights the complex needs of labor trafficking victims and the numerous local community resources that nongovernmental organizations can leverage to assist them.
PUBLICATIONS: PROSECUTORS
Checklist for Prosecutors and Investigators: Securing Labor Trafficking Convictions
This resource provides a practical checklist and considerations for prosecutors and investigators to use during labor trafficking prosecution investigations, including evidentiary considerations, victim/witness testimony preparation, etc.
WEBINARS: PROSECUTORS
Using Multidisciplinary Victim-Centered Techniques to Investigate Labor Trafficking
Webinar Recording Date: 10/24/19
This webinar examines several cases to identify the components of a successful labor trafficking investigation.
Partnerships to Address Labor Trafficking: How to Build a Multidisciplinary Team
Webinar Recording Date: 2/20/20
This webinar summarizes two labor trafficking cases from the prosecution perspective, types of places where labor trafficking has occurred in the United States, and what factors contribute to successful conviction/case outcomes.
Prosecuting Labor Trafficking: Case Studies
Webinar Recording Date: 4/1/20
This webinar identifies several processes that must be considered in the prosecution of labor trafficking.
Evolving Trends in Labor Trafficking Cases
Webinar Recording Date: 9/2/21
This webinar brings together some of the country’s leading experts in service provision, law, and social work to discuss best practices, approaches to avoid, and strategies to achieve survivor success long after a prosecution has ended.
VIDEOS: PROSECUTORS
What is Labor Trafficking?
In communities across the United States and throughout the world, millions of people are exploited by forced labor. This video provides an introduction to labor trafficking, including the common industries and places where it occurs, and the conditions in which victims are forced to work.
Labor Trafficking Victim Characteristics
Victims are often hidden in plain sight and may regularly interact with the public but be afraid to ask for help. This video highlights the common characteristics of labor trafficking victims and how their traffickers use verbal, physical, and psychological abuse to control them.
Red Flag Indicators of Labor Trafficking
The indicators of labor trafficking may not be the settings themselves but, rather, may be evident through the conditions and circumstances observed in the victim. This video highlights several common red flag indicators of labor trafficking to strengthen victim identification and rescue.
Providing Assistance to Labor Trafficking Survivors
Social service providers play an important role in helping victims of labor trafficking restore their lives. This video highlights the complex needs of labor trafficking victims and the numerous local community resources that nongovernmental organizations can leverage to assist them.
PUBLICATIONS: BUSINESSES
What Is Labor Trafficking? | en Español
This resource explains the federal definition of labor trafficking and characteristics of victims and perpetrators.
Labor Trafficking: Hidden in Plain Sight | en Español
This resource provides indicators of labor trafficking as an awareness tool for businesses in general that may encounter labor trafficking in the workplace or through home services such as cable/Internet providers, including characteristics of victims and traffickers, and contact information to report suspected trafficking incidents.
Labor Trafficking Toolkit Fact Sheet: Business Community | en Español
This fact sheet provides an overview of the toolkit/resource center and contents available through this project to be shared with the business community.
Indicators of Labor Trafficking: Food and Beverage Industry | en Español
This infographic helps individuals in the food and beverage industry identify victims of labor trafficking, as well as contact information to report suspected trafficking incidents.
Indicators of Labor Trafficking: Hospitality Industry | en Español
This infographic helps individuals in the hospitality industry identify victims of labor trafficking, as well as contact information to report suspected trafficking incidents.
Indicators of Labor Trafficking: School Personnel | en Español
This infographic helps individuals in schools identify victims of labor trafficking, as well as contact information to report suspected trafficking incidents.
Indicators of Labor Trafficking: Transportation and Delivery Drivers | en Español
This infographic helps individuals in the transportation and delivery industry identify victims of labor trafficking, as well as contact information to report suspected trafficking incidents.
VIDEOS: BUSINESSES
What is Labor Trafficking?
In communities across the United States and throughout the world, millions of people are exploited by forced labor. This video provides an introduction to labor trafficking, including the common industries and places where it occurs, and the conditions in which victims are forced to work.
Labor Trafficking Victim Characteristics
Victims are often hidden in plain sight and may regularly interact with the public but be afraid to ask for help. This video highlights the common characteristics of labor trafficking victims and how their traffickers use verbal, physical, and psychological abuse to control them.
Red Flag Indicators of Labor Trafficking
The indicators of labor trafficking may not be the settings themselves but, rather, may be evident through the conditions and circumstances observed in the victim. This video highlights several common red flag indicators of labor trafficking to strengthen victim identification and rescue.
How Can I Help?
Labor trafficking is a heinous crime that often hides in plain sight. For this reason, it is essential that community members and business owners become aware of the labor trafficking epidemic. This video illustrates the importance of knowing the red flag indicators to better recognize cases of labor trafficking and what you should do if you suspect an instance of labor trafficking.
Providing Assistance to Labor Trafficking Survivors
Social service providers play an important role in helping victims of labor trafficking restore their lives. This video highlights the complex needs of labor trafficking victims and the numerous local community resources that nongovernmental organizations can leverage to assist them.
PUBLICATIONS: COMMUNITY
What Is Labor Trafficking? | en Español
This resource explains the federal definition of labor trafficking and characteristics of victims and perpetrators.
Labor Trafficking: Hidden in Plain Sight | en Español
This resource provides indicators of labor trafficking as an awareness tool for businesses in general that may encounter labor trafficking in the workplace or through home services such as cable/Internet providers, including characteristics of victims and traffickers, and contact information to report suspected trafficking incidents.
Labor Trafficking Toolkit Fact Sheet: Business Community | en Español
This fact sheet provides an overview of the toolkit/resource center and contents available through this project to be shared with law enforcement.
WEBINARS: COMMUNITY
The Impact of COVID-19 on Survivors and Service Providers
Webinar Recording Date: 1/6/21
This webinar will be conducted roundtable style, and the presenters will discuss the challenges they are facing due to COVID-19, such as technology barriers, funding disruptions and limited resources, virtual schooling, job loss, and limited physical contact while working their cases.
VIDEOS: COMMUNITY
What is Labor Trafficking?
In communities across the United States and throughout the world, millions of people are exploited by forced labor. This video provides an introduction to labor trafficking, including the common industries and places where it occurs, and the conditions in which victims are forced to work.
Labor Trafficking Victim Characteristics
Victims are often hidden in plain sight and may regularly interact with the public but be afraid to ask for help. This video highlights the common characteristics of labor trafficking victims and how their traffickers use verbal, physical, and psychological abuse to control them.
Red Flag Indicators of Labor Trafficking
The indicators of labor trafficking may not be the settings themselves but, rather, may be evident through the conditions and circumstances observed in the victim. This video highlights several common red flag indicators of labor trafficking to strengthen victim identification and rescue.
How Can I Help?
Labor trafficking is a heinous crime that often hides in plain sight. For this reason, it is essential that community members and business owners become aware of the labor trafficking epidemic. This video illustrates the importance of knowing the red flag indicators to better recognize cases of labor trafficking and what you should do if you suspect an instance of labor trafficking.
Providing Assistance to Labor Trafficking Survivors
Social service providers play an important role in helping victims of labor trafficking restore their lives. This video highlights the complex needs of labor trafficking victims and the numerous local community resources that nongovernmental organizations can leverage to assist them.
Labor Trafficking Survivor
Other Resources
- Labor Trafficking | National Human Trafficking Hotline
- Human Trafficking | Help & Resources | Office for Victims of Crime (ojp.gov)
- Human Trafficking Resources | Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (ojp.gov)
- Resources for Victims of Human Trafficking and Other Crimes | USCIS
- Human Trafficking Resources | National Indian Gaming Commission (nigc.gov)
- Labor Trafficking - The National Prevention Toolkit (fsu.edu)
- Framework - Tools to Combat Labor Trafficking (frameworkta.org)
- Trafficking Resources | The Administration for Children and Families (hhs.gov)
- Labor Trafficking Resource Guide | The Center (ojp.gov)
- Trafficking in Persons | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)
Subject-Matter Expert Bios
Detective Megan Zentner
Detective Megan Zentner is assigned to the Seattle, Washington, Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit. She is a task force officer with Homeland Security Investigations, focused on labor trafficking of foreign nationals and other human trafficking-related crimes. Her position is grant-funded through the U.S. Department of Justice Enhanced Collaborative Model Grant. Detective Zentner is a Washington Advisory Committee on Trafficking (WashACT) core team member with extensive consultation and presentation experience on the subject.
Florrie Burke
Ms. Florrie Burke is a consultant on human trafficking to governmental and nongovernmental agencies. With two decades of specialized experience, she is a leading expert on the victim-centered approach in human trafficking cases and collaborative efforts of criminal justice actors and victim care providers. Ms. Burke is a founder of Freedom Network USA and has done extensive training, speaking, and consultation on human trafficking issues, trauma, torture, gender violence, and exploitation, both in the United States and internationally. She serves as an expert witness on cases of human trafficking and has developed materials and trainings for global actors.
Evelyn Chumbow
Ms. Evelyn Chumbow is a survivor of domestic servitude. Since 2014, Ms. Chumbow has been an advocate with the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking, and she was awarded the Presbyterian Peaceseeker Award for her efforts to combat human trafficking. She served as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Human Trafficking Survivor Advisory Council and has presented nationally on the needs of labor trafficking victims. Ms. Chumbow also serves as an ambassador for the Innovative Community Engagement Foundation’s Granting Courage Initiative, which assists survivors of human trafficking, and was the first recipient of its annual scholarship.
Terry Coonan
Mr. Terry Coonan is a professor of law and criminology at Florida State University (FSU) and the founding executive director of FSU’s Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, which has done leading work nationwide on human trafficking issues. As an attorney, he litigates pro bono cases on behalf of trafficking victims throughout Florida. Mr. Coonan has been a consultant on human trafficking issues with the U.S. Department of Justice, law enforcement officials, and service providers nationwide. Since 2011, he has served as the designer and lead trainer on human trafficking for the National Judicial College, delivering trainings to more than 2,000 judges in 36 U.S. states.
Ambassador Luis C.deBaca
Ambassador Luis C.deBaca is a former diplomat and prosecutor. He served at the U.S. State Department as Ambassador at Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and also served as the previous Director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Sex Offender Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). Previously, as a federal prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division, Ambassador C.deBaca led investigations and prosecutions of dozens of forced labor and sex trafficking cases involving hundreds of victims, as well as guided policy efforts that led to the development of the modern “victim-centered approach,” victim protections such as the T visa, the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and the United Nations’ anti-trafficking protocol.
Project Team Bios
Carolyn Binder
Ms. Carolyn Binder is a senior manager with the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR). As senior manager of the Criminal Justice Initiatives team, Ms. Binder serves as the lead for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) Partnerships to Address Labor Trafficking initiative. Ms. Binder leads the team providing infrastructure support to the National Public Safety Partnership (PSP), which provides an innovative framework for DOJ to enhance its support of state, local, and tribal law enforcement and prosecution authorities. She also leads the team that works with the Major Cities Chiefs Association in support of its Violent Crime Reduction Operations Guide and the COPS Office Navigating Change and Keys to Successful Implementation Strategies project.
Joseph McHale
Mr. Joseph McHale is a senior manager with the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR). In this capacity, he serves as the principal law enforcement advisor to the Criminal Justice Initiatives team. His responsibilities include strategic planning, training and technical assistance development and delivery, and field-centric research and planning. Mr. McHale supports the National Public Safety Partnership (PSP), the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) Partnerships to Address Labor Trafficking initiative, and the COPS Office Navigating Change and Keys to Successful Implementation Strategies project. Mr. McHale retired from the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department (KCPD) in 2016 at the rank of major. Upon retirement from the KCPD, he served as the Chief of Police for the Marion, Iowa, Police Department (2016 to 2019), one of the most progressive law enforcement agencies in the state of Iowa.
Amanda Armetta
Ms. Amanda Armetta is a senior program specialist with the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR), where she is a member of IIR’s Criminal Justice Initiatives team. Ms. Armetta supports the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) Partnerships to Address Labor Trafficking initiative. She assists with project management, material development, and program reporting. In addition, Ms. Armetta assists the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the U.S. Department of Justice National Public Safety Partnership (PSP), the Center for Task Force Training (CenTF) Program, and the COPS Office Navigating Change and Keys to Successful Implementation Strategies project.
Adam Cambria
Mr. Adam Cambria is a senior program specialist with the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR), where he supports the Criminal Justice Initiatives team. Mr. Cambria supports the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) Partnerships to Address Labor Trafficking initiative. Along with the project team, he is responsible for developing an online toolkit of labor trafficking resources to share with law enforcement and the business community. In addition to his work with the COPS Office, Mr. Cambria also provides support to the U.S. Department of Justice National Public Safety Partnership (PSP) and the Center for Task Force Training (CenTF) Program.
Cherisse Hudson
Ms. Cherisse Hudson is a research associate with the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) and is assigned to the Criminal Justice Initiatives team. Ms. Hudson provides programmatic support, including research and environmental scanning of open source information, material development, and communications for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) Partnerships to Address Labor Trafficking initiative. She also provides support to the U.S. Department of Justice National Public Safety Partnership (PSP) and the Center for Task Force Training (CenTF) Program.