 Hey everyone it's been easy your community outreach specialist and today I am with Corporal Alan Wilkin Who you guys have seen before from the Trilby initiative, but today we are bringing you a very special video it's going to be a behind-the-scenes of a Stand-up not a comedy but a stand-up interview that he does with one of our local news stations to talk about the fact that January is human trafficking awareness month Yep, national human trafficking awareness month bringing awareness to this dark crime Put some light on it make a difference exactly. So stay tuned until after the intro So let me start with just getting your name and the correct spelling and everything. Yeah, Alan Wilkett al an W il Corporal Pasco Sheriff's Office, okay, and are you in any kind of special like human trafficking? Is there? Like a unit or force or is there a part of our human trafficking? Okay task force so county task force, okay? And this is human trafficking awareness month. Is that the right way to say it? Okay, and so I guess talk about a little bit of what you guys are doing to kind of raise awareness in Pasco County for For them for them for them awareness month, okay? So January is national human trafficking awareness month And when we understand the concept of human trafficking it's forced labor sex trafficking Involuntary servitude and up to 20 different forms of human trafficking It's the second largest criminal enterprise in the world right behind the drug trade Generates a hundred and fifty billion dollars a year and the international labor organization has it at forty point three million victims globally so because of this second largest criminal enterprise and that the United States is recognized as one of the largest Consumers of human trafficking it becomes important for education and awareness to be brought into our community So one of the things that we're doing is we're doing a lot of community awareness events throughout the month of January as well as throughout the year But January focusing on human trafficking awareness and education such as teaching the CSU academies Doing a lot of community events, but one of our large events that we're doing is called light of the night Light of the night 2019 is an awareness event for human trafficking and it comes in two different parts We have a 5k that is going to be run out of Pasco Hernando State College in Wesley Chapel and that's on January the 19th at 8 o'clock But the big concert event is February the second at Trinity College We got Johnny Diaz gonna be there as a as a singer as well some local talent candlelight vigil And the whole idea is to raise awareness because the truth of this is this is one of the darkest crimes Known to mankind and the only way to combat darkness is to shed light on it And that's what awareness does is brings light to darkness and we must do that we must do it now So once so once you do start that and you get awareness and people around the community know about it Like what is the next kind of? Result you're hoping to get you know you will raise awareness, but then how does that in what ways kind of does it lead to either? Enforcement or your arrests or sure or getting people out of human trafficking So step number one raise awareness step number two get educated But then three what action steps can we take and so the actions steps become critical because to know something and not Do something about it is as bad as not knowing at all So what we want to do is we want to make sure that people are taking the appropriate steps There's a couple of different things they can call our crime tips number on a local level if it's a crime in progress It's all the sheet 9-1-1 But one of the things that we encourage is if you see signs and behaviors after being educated Then you got to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline. The National Human Trafficking Hotline is 888 3737 888 That number activates the task force to begin the investigative process So obviously once we do the investigation and we get the criminal complaint and begin to get the elements of the crime Then the arrest and prosecution will take place, but we really need a Education awareness and then we need somebody to take a step and make a difference in somebody's life What are some of the things that somebody you know if you if you're out and about? What are some of the things that you would see that might trigger you to try and Call the number or call you guys, you know, what what what should people look for? You know, I know part of part of your events are teaching that But you know for us kind of briefly what are some of the things to look out for well very quickly some of the common indicators So some of the common indicators that we're looking for all revolve around control So the trafficker is seeking to control the victim So control becomes the nucleus of any activity that we're looking for so what does some of that control look like? It's gonna be the controlling of documents controlling somebody from being able to speak on their own Answering questions for someone having their documentation and keeping it in a place That's not attainable for the victim themselves having unexplained injuries Trips to the emergency room that cannot be explained Bruising that's not easily explained any of those kind of things that that raised that red flag But we really look for that to be around that control mechanism Okay, and so talk a little bit about how big of a problem this is in in Pasco specifically Okay, so so we talked about globally 40.3 million The United States being recognized as one of the largest consumers and Florida reports at the third highest rate To the national human trafficking hotline following California in Texas So for reporting at number three and the Tampa Bay area is number three within the state for reporting human trafficking We have a huge problem in the Tampa Bay area. We have tourism great weather Major league sporting events. We have a beachfront properties and high-end hotels All of these attractive climates that a trafficker would bring victim here and exploit them out on the streets or brothels or online And so we have a big problem in the Tampa Bay area and Pasco Specifically experiences all of the same elements that the Tampa Bay area does as well We have the forced labor. We have the commercial sex trade and we have all of these forms happening run our own backyards Okay Is there anything else that I'm not asking about that you guys would want to get out with Any resources you want to talk about that we have here in Pasco? Okay, so let's talk about resources for just a moment one of the resources I would direct people to is the Pasco Sheriff's Office website all the Pasco Sheriff's website We have a page that's dedicated to human trafficking indicators Resources enhance resources that will lead you to other places as well to learn more about this Including Polaris project in the blue campaign for the Department of Homeland Security These resources become critical and being able to have a further understanding of not just what is human trafficking But what do we do about it? Okay, cool. I think I'm good. I'm good. Cool. Cool Take one take all that's it. That's it. We're good