MANITOWOC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Manitowoc County now has its own human trafficking task force. The group announced its formation less than a month ago.
Human trafficking happens all across the state. It’s a crime that involves using force, fraud, or coercion to exploit people for labor or sex.
“It’s an unseen crime most of the time, beginning with starting online a lot of times, drugs get involved and it just isn’t out there in the open,” said Beth Heilman, a member of the Manitowoc County Human Trafficking Task Force.
The group of healthcare professionals, law enforcement agencies, and social services groups that formed the new Manitowoc County Human Trafficking Task Force want to make the issue more visible, so they can prevent it from happening.
“The biggest piece is get the word out, so it’s prevention, education is the key because education is power and the more you know the more you’re going to be able to help. And it was very clear by the response from the Manitowoc County community that they want to see something like this happening,” said Heilman.
She works in child advocacy and said the idea for the group was years in the making. It simply took time to get all the dedicated volunteers and resources together.
And now that the task force has launched, they’re ready to get to work.
According to Heilman, “We’re hoping by October we’ll be able to do our first community presentation. And then it’s kind of organizations that reach out requesting that information. Sometimes it’s businesses that want to know more, sometimes it’s churches, civil groups anywhere that we can get that word out so that they can start talking and knowing this is a problem and what to look for and to protect their loved ones.”
The task force will mostly be proactive, working in prevention and education. The individuals in the group and the agencies they work for will be more reactive in helping those impacted by human trafficking.
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