January has a designation that some may not know about, with it being National Trafficking Prevention Month.
Adair and Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Jeremy Cooper says that growing up, he shared a naivety on many crimes much like many other individuals who live in rural areas. He shares that when he was younger, he believed that trafficking was when someone or something was moved from place to place. Cooper tells Raccoon Valley Radio that it wasn’t until he attended a conference put on by the Iowa Department of Homeland Security where a trafficking victim talked to them that he learned more about trafficking.
“She was doing a presentation on human trafficking and the awareness. One thing that spoke to me right out of the gate with her, and this is how she started it, was, “Human trafficking could be happening next door to you. I guarantee you that it’s happening in Iowa. And the biggest thing with human trafficking is that it has absolutely nothing to do with moving something or someone from one country to another.’”
Cooper mentions that now that he knows more, he also wants others to know more about trafficking. He explains that human trafficking is forcing or coercing individuals to do something that they don’t want to. Cooper adds that in recent years, the state of Iowa has been doing more to make sure that trafficking crimes are more clean cut than previously, where it took a lot of pieces for a crime to be considered trafficking. He also states that there are several pieces of information and information sites from the state, and on the national level, that people can access for more information.
Iowa Office to Combat Human Trafficking: https://dps.iowa.gov/divisions-iowa-department-public-safety/iowa-division-intelligence-fusion-center/iaocht
Stop Human Trafficking Iowa: https://stophtiowa.org/