At least one reported case of human trafficking in all Tennessee counties | Local News

In 2022, there were 88 reports of sex trafficking in East Tennessee. Seven of these reports were from Cumberland County, according to Kevin Reagan, a special agent at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's human trafficking unit.

“Numbers and statistics are hard to gather sometimes around this particular thing, because of the population, their demographics, under-reporting, uncooperative behaviors and the lack of recognition by the people who witness it,” said Sarah Cannon, the Avalon Center's director of community outreach and training. 

“At the Avalon Center, we are the victim service provider for human trafficking victims, and in our fiscal year of 2021-'22, we served 20 clients who were identified as human trafficking victims,” Cannon said.

In 2020, there were 909 human trafficking hotline referrals made in Tennessee, with 317 of those being in Middle Tennessee. Additionally, there has been at least one reported case of human trafficking in each of the state's 95 counties.

To help raise awareness of human trafficking, the Cumberland County Health Department partnered with the Avalon Center in hosting a human trafficking Q & A panel on Jan. 25 in the health department's conference room. Speakers at the event included Cannon, Reagan, and Kelli Germain, the program director and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Minors consultant from the Department of Children's Services.

TBI investigates both sex and labor trafficking, and Reagan confirmed that both are present in the state. Reagan also said that sex trafficking tends to be reported more, because labor trafficking is more difficult for witnesses to recognize.

When an attendee asked the best way to report human trafficking, Reagan said there is both a national hotline and a Tennessee hotline for human trafficking. The Tennessee hotline, which can be reached at 855-558-6484, is the quickest way to connect with state law enforcement. 

“Human trafficking is coined as modern-day slavery. It's the second largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world, second only to drug trafficking,” Cannon said. “It's a big issue that we need to be paying attention to.”

Officially, human trafficking is defined as “the act of recruiting, enticing, harboring, transporting, providing, obtaining, advertising, maintaining, patronizing or soliciting any persons with knowledge or reckless disregard and by means of force, fraud or coercion to control the victims for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or labor services against their will.”

“It's so important we have events like this, where we're all learning about what trafficking is, what to look for,” Cannon continued. 

“We rely on citizens and the community to make those reports.”

When one attendee asked what demographics are more commonly targeted by traffickers, Reagan responded that children are one of the more targeted demographics in human trafficking, and that children who are runaways are especially susceptible to being trafficked. Cannon agreed with this, and added that people with substance issues or family issues are often targeted as well. Cannon also stated that children account for more than half of the victims of human trafficking, with the average age being 13 years old. 

“Juveniles are especially vulnerable. They don't have as many available resources to them, so they're an easy target,” Germain said. “Especially the younger they are, 13 or 14—they're not employed, they don't have their own source of income, so when they do run away it leaves them even more vulnerable.”

“That's even more targeted, because they don't have money to pay for somewhere to go, they might just hitch-hike and be picked up from the side of a road, they might have another friend they run [away] with that's already involved in the trafficking,” Germain continued. “So, there's lots of dynamics to it that they're especially vulnerable to at that age.”

DCS also investigates child sex trafficking, and according to Germain, the department has a specialized human trafficking team as of January. Germain has been specifically working on human trafficking cases with children and adults since 2017. 

“We see both commercial and familial sex trafficking,” Germain said. “In the more rural areas, we see familial—it's where parents, other family members or friends are selling the children in exchange for money, drugs, goods, housing, transportation—we have seen quite a bit of that.”

“Are you able to go into the school system and talk to our kids about the trafficking in case maybe they are in those situations and don't realize that that's been going on?” an audience member asked.

The Avalon Center and DCS both offer training for school staff members to recognize what signs of human trafficking can look like. However, organizations are unable to give these presentations directly to students due to state law limiting how sex can be talked about at schools.

“I do know that non-profits are going in and directly targeting educators, counselors, school administration, lunch, bus drivers, the whole nine yards.,” Germain said. “So, I think that is helping some, because at least the school staff and administration are getting that education and information, and when they suspect something, they're able to know how to go about reporting it.”

DCS receives reports directly from their Child Abuse Hotline. Reports flagged for human trafficking are sent to the department's human trafficking unit, and the department contacts law enforcement, TBI and non-governmental organizations that aid victims. The Avalon Center also has a crisis hotline and can provide support services to the victim during TBI's investigation into the trafficking.

Attendees of the event also participated in the Red Sand Project after the panel ended, filling in cracks on the sidewalk outside the health department with red sand. The Red Sand Project was founded by artist and activist Molly Gochman in 2014, with the goal of spreading awareness of human trafficking.

Gochman initiated the project's first action in Miami, where she filled the cracks of sidewalks in and around the Art Basel Miami Beach pavilion with red sand. The approach was symbolic, with the grains of sand representing those individuals who fall through the cracks—whether the cracks of our social, economic, and political systems or those of our personal consciousness.

According to the Red Sand Project website, an estimated 40.3 million individuals around the world live in slavery, whether in forced marriages, forced labor or for sexual exploitation. 

Those in Tennessee who are being trafficked, know someone who is being trafficked or suspect that someone is being trafficked can call the state's Human Trafficking Hotline at 855-558-6484. 

The national hotline's number is 1-888-373-7888. 

The Avalon Center's Crisis Hotline is 1-800-641-3434.