Le Mars Police and several organizations hosting town hall on Human Trafficking

Monday, February 27th, several organizations are gathering for a discussion on “Perception vs Reality” on human trafficking, signs to look out for, and answering questions the public has on the topic.

Assistant Police Chief Justin Daale said that the department has been getting a lot of questions about it.

Opening up to the public to ask questions they've been curious about over the last few months.

Le Mars Police gets a lot of calls as a community with major roads coming through, saying human trafficking happens in every community.

Daale said, “It's just being aware. So we do get calls occasionally from different areas in town that something didn't look right with a driver and a passenger. So, you know, we, we like to get those calls, it shows that our communities are active and have taken some steps to help help with human trafficking.”

January the Siouxland Coalition against human trafficking spoke to the city council and signed a proclamation that January is Human Trafficking awareness month.

Several officers will be at that town hall to go over a human trafficking case that they actually worked on locally a few years ago.

They wanted to make sure that if they are declaring that statement, people understand what human trafficking is, and what it can look like.

“You watch movies where human trafficking looks pretty obvious but you know, human trafficking could be as simple as just somebody being disengaged from the family or community. So there are different things out there that we want to make the community aware of,” Haale said.

The city tries to hold townhall once a year on topics that interest the community.

“You could be saving a person's life,” Daale said.

The event is free to the public and will be at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor downtown from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Contact Assistant Chief Justin Daale for any additional questions.

Agencies helping put on the event include The Siouxland Coalition Against Human Trafficking, Plymouth County Attorney's Office, Safe Place, and CAASA.