Oct 23, 2020

Statewide initiative addresses human trafficking, illicit massage businesses

Posted Oct 23, 2020 6:25 PM

by SARAH THOMACK

St. Joseph Post

A statewide initiative addressing human trafficking will help the St. Joseph Police Department as it works to crack down on illicit massage businesses. 

St. Joseph Police Detective Sgt. Jason Strong says they have been working with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office task force on human trafficking for over a year and the AG's office announced a statewide initiative to specifically address illicit massage businesses.

“The Attorney General’s office, in partnership with the police department, they’ve sent out letters," Strong says. "The police department here was probably one of the first departments in the state to actually send out letters to the landlords and try to inform them of the information that we have and have been able to obtain in regards to these illicit massage businesses advertising on illicit websites.”

Strong says the Attorney General's office sent out letters to 77 landlords throughout the state making them aware of illicit massage businesses in their buildings and giving them a chance to take action before the Attorney General’s office does. Strong says 40 of those landlords evicted the tenants or plan to. 

Strong says in the last couple years, human trafficking has increasingly become a problem in the St. Joseph area and it’s been difficult to address and take on by themselves.

“It’s definitely taken some leadership and people from the statewide level getting involved to kind of help us put resources together, talk to victims,” Strong says. “That human trafficking task force is made up of law enforcement, non-for-profits, victim advocates and survivors, more importantly, that can give us insight into what this business looks like. It’s been very valuable to us just for understanding.”

Strong says while the statewide initiative targets illicit massage businesses, human trafficking has a lot of different forms.

“Drug-addicted parents can be trying to traffic their kids for dope money, it has all different shapes, it looks different, but the one thing in particular that has similarity, it’s vulnerability,” Strong says. “They prey on vulnerable people and they exploit those people. Some of our most at-risk individuals are habitual runaway and throwaway juveniles… and the problem with a lot of that is these children think they’re in control, it’s years later that they realize they were taken advantage of sometimes.”

Strong says the St. Joseph Police Department has been able to work to address human trafficking in the area due to help from the public and he encourages anyone with information to contact the department through their TIPS Hotline or p3tips.com.