Milwaukee is becoming a hub for human trafficking. Here's what police want you to know

Yahoo

29-01-2025

Human trafficking remains a hidden crime, often under-reported to authorities.
The Milwaukee Police Department is trying to change that.
As part of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, members of the department's Human Trafficking Task Force are speaking out to dispel myths about trafficking and encourage people to come forward.
The task force recently investigated a high-profile case that resulted in charges against a half-dozen people, including a former public defender, retired municipal judge, investment banker and firefighter.
The Police Department investigated 35 cases of human trafficking in each of the past two years, according to department data. So far this year, three human trafficking cases have been reported.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel interviewed Sgt. Fawn Schwandt, Detectives Michael Walker and Anna Flores, and Maria Rozek, who is a trauma counselor and victim advocate.
Here are key takeaways from the conversation.
Human trafficking is typically portrayed in films and TV shows as a stranger abduction.
In reality, traffickers often offer those who are vulnerable — particularly youth — attention, affection and material help, like cell phones, money or housing.
A trafficker builds that relationship and then exploits it, the experts said.
"The most important part is with our adult victims and our young victims, it's all about vulnerabilities, and what is the number one, the strongest drug in the world? It's love," Flores said. "And so what we see a lot is they're looking for that love. They're looking for that attention."
A 2018 report from the Medical College of Wisconsin found many sex trafficking victims in Milwaukee had a history of being reported missing from group homes.
That trend has continued.
Milwaukee has a high concentration of group homes. Youth placed in those settings often have previous trauma.
"The locations of the group homes haven't changed and we know from our victims and from the traffickers that they will just park down the block and wait for the next person to come out," Flores said. "And it usually starts with like: 'Oh, you need a ride? Oh, you know, it's raining, it's cold. You want to hop in? You want to smoke some weed?'"
The trafficker can promise something like a cell phone or ride back to the community where the youth is from, said Walker, another detective on the task force.
"It quickly turns into them doing sex acts for money," he said. "(The youth) go into it thinking 'I'm just going to do it for this one thing' and then when we interview them, they say, 'I got in way over my head and I couldn't get out at that point.'"
The task force members are planning to meet with group home owners this year to discuss requirements for reporting youth missing and other potential solutions to keep kids safe.
Milwaukee's geography, concentration of group homes, and trend of intergenerational trafficking have contributed to the city's reputation as a hub for trafficking, the officials said.
"Milwaukee has its unique challenges, especially when it comes to juveniles and runaways and group homes and having a vulnerable population that's susceptible to this kind of criminal activity," Walker said.
The city serves as a nexus to Chicago, the Twin Cities and Fox Valley. Milwaukee also has seen multiple examples of intergenerational trafficking, which the task force members said is different from other cities.
"We have people who learn to be traffickers from people within their own families," said Rozek, the victim advocate.
The task force members say the vast majority of adult women they encounter who are selling sex are doing so because they are vulnerable in some way. They may not have stable housing or may be struggling with addiction, for example.
The detectives see value in investigating and arresting the men who purchase sex, often called "johns."
"They're driving the criminal activity," Walker said.
Children cannot consent to sex with an adult, the task force members said.
"There's no such thing as a child prostitute," Flores said.
In recent years, there's been bipartisan support for a "safe harbor" bill to ban charging minors for prostitution by clarifying children cannot legally consent to sex with an adult. But the measure has failed to become law.
The police department's task force has requested a dedicated prosecutor to handle human trafficking cases.
"It takes a special person to investigate these cases and to prosecute these cases because all of the victims we work with are perceived as not credible," Flores said.
Deputy District Attorney Matthew Torbenson, who is in charge of the seven prosecutors in the sensitive crimes unit, says that is unlikely, given the nature of the work and staff resources. The unit handles domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse cases.
Trafficking cases often are sprawling investigations with multiple agencies, search warrants and other factors, Torbenson said.
If only one person handled those cases, they could become overwhelmed or burned out. The unit also has seen staff turnover, as have other district attorney's offices in the state, and Torbenson said he would not want a case to stall if a single prosecutor left.
"I have a lot of dedicated people in the sensitive crimes unit," he said. "Any of them are fantastic at those cases."
The Human Trafficking Hotline is at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733.
The Milwaukee Police Department's Human Trafficking Unit can be reached at 414-935-7405. To submit an anonymous tip online, go to city.milwaukee.gov/mpdtipanon.
In an emergency, call 911.
Ashley Luthern is a reporter and deputy investigations editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What Milwaukee police want you to know about human trafficking