Task force to work to end human trafficking and provide trauma services to victims as numbers continue to climb

The Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice announced a human trafficking task force in partnership with the Connecticut Children's Alliance and law enforcement agencies on Wednesday morning in Rocky Hill.

The federally funded task force is aimed at ending human trafficking in the Greater Hartford region and providing support for victims, according to Hartford State's Attorney Sharmese Walcott.

The task force plans to address both sex and labor trafficking through a mixed approach of investigating cases, prosecuting traffickers and providing trauma services to victims, according to a presentation from Walcott and Krystal Rich, executive director of the Connecticut Children's Alliance.

“We recognized the need in the Greater Hartford region to strengthen our approach to human trafficking and to rethink the structure of how we address human trafficking of all kinds,” Walcott said.

Nationally, there were over 10,000 human trafficking cases reported to the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline and over 16,500 individual victims affected in 2021, the Division of Criminal Justice said. Rich said these figures “do not even scratch the surface” of the true impact of human trafficking and said that the real estimated figure is closer to 50 million people being impacted by trafficking at any given time.

This task force would focus on both child and adult trafficking cases. Walcott said there are 17 multi-disciplinary teams that have been investigating child trafficking in the state since 2014. Those teams responded to nine cases of child trafficking in 2014, which grew to 92 in 2022.

“It is one of the most vile crimes there is,” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said at the announcement Wednesday. “It is modern-day slavery, and it exists. It exists in our state and in our communities.”

The task force will consist of law enforcement representatives from regional precincts, legal counsel, victim advocates and Hartford community members, Walcott said.

Police chiefs from Hartford, East Hartford, West Hartford, Bloomfield, Manchester, South Windsor, Glastonbury and Windsor have committed to support the task force's investigations, the Division of Criminal Justice said. Bronin said a detective from the Hartford Police Department will be dedicated to investigating human trafficking.

Rich said the multi-disciplinary approach will help “ensure that there are no gaps in the services provided” to victims. The task force is also focused on preventing human trafficking by raising awareness of warning signs through trainings and programming, Walcott said.

“We've learned through what we've seen so far that there's still a needed enhanced response,” Rich said. “We need additional specialized services for this population.”

Walcott and Rich highlighted that women of color are disproportionately impacted by human trafficking. There will be a racial justice subcommittee of the task force, as well as a service delivery and a policies and procedures subcommittee.

The task force will be located in the Connecticut Center for Digital Investigations, which is located in the Manchester Police Department, according to Manchester Chief William Darby.

“One of the most significant things about this task force is the understanding of how we're going to define success,” Rich said. “It's not always just about the arrest or the investigation or the prosecution. It's also about making sure that the appropriate services are put into place for the victims and that they get what they need in order to be able to survive and ultimately thrive. This task force is very much focused on both increasing prosecutions, but also making sure much-needed services are available to victims.”

To contact the Regionalized Human Trafficking Recovery Task Force of the Greater Hartford Region, call 860-566-3190 ext. 3128 or email [email protected].

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