More than 200 law enforcement officials and anti-trafficking advocates recently gathered for an advanced training on human trafficking at the Criminal Justice Training Center in Seattle, Washington. Training topics included current statutes and national trends in human trafficking law, investigation tools, and victim-centered strategies, among others.
The Institute’s Co-Founder John Richmond began the training with a session on the fundamental principles in labor and sex trafficking to provide a knowledge base for all attendees regardless of their exposure to trafficking in their respective fields. Following him were speakers with varying backgrounds in human trafficking, providing attendees with multiple lenses through which the fight against trafficking can be viewed.
“The broad array of training faculty included experienced investigators, prosecutors, social workers, and human trafficking survivors,” Richmond said. “Together, they made this training unique by providing content focused on practical and proven strategies to stop traffickers and care for victims.”
The Institute’s Associate Legal Counsel Kyleigh Feehs presented on state-specific federal human trafficking cases in Washington and Oregon, based on findings from the 2017 Federal Human Trafficking Report.
“It is our hope that by sharing these state-specific metrics, attendees can walk away from the training with the confidence that although human trafficking cases can be complex and at times difficult to prosecute, they are also completely doable,” Feehs said.
Other speakers included Special Agent Steven Vienneau, Federal Bureau of Investigations, and Special Agent Jennifer Williams, Homeland Security Investigations, who spoke about local trends and investigative tools. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate Crisham and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ye-Ting Woo presented on lessons learned from United States v. Bonds, a sex trafficking case study. The training also included trafficking survivors who shared their stories and discussed the importance of survivor-centered, trauma-informed strategies for stability and rapport building.
The event was hosted by the Seattle Police Department and sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Associates.
Click here to download the materials provided to training attendees.
