Attorney General Dave Sunday joined a bipartisan coalition of 41 Attorneys General in a letter to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services asking for law enforcement access to National Human Trafficking Hotline tips.
The national hotline — 888-373-7888 — serves as a vital tool for neighbors, relatives, bystanders, victims and survivors, and other witnesses to report valuable information about suspected trafficking activity.
The federal department is seeking a grant awardee to run the hotline program. The previous awardee, Polaris, prevented law enforcement access to the tips.
“At a time when law enforcement is working in unity with the community to bring human trafficking out of the shadows, access to these tips could lead to more charges against traffickers – and more help for victims and survivors, who rarely escape on their own,” Attorney General Sunday said. “My office launched a Human Trafficking Section devoted to stopping these dehumanizing crimes, and access to this information would, without a doubt, strengthen those efforts.”
The 41 Attorneys General who signed onto the letter are not seeking access to tips provided by victims and survivors, who may not want to be contacted by law enforcement.
Tipsters can also use the hotline via text message, by texting INFO to 233733.
The hotline is funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Administration for Children & Families.
Since 2007, Polaris has operated the National Human Trafficking Hotline with millions of dollars in funding authorized by Congress. It was recently discovered that Polaris was failing to forward third-party tips about adult victims to state law enforcement except in limited circumstances. Additionally, states have often discovered a delay of even several months before the Hotline shared those tips with states.
In addition to Attorney General Sunday, the letter was signed by the Attorneys General of the following states and territories: Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The letter was led by Attorneys General Lynn Fitch (Miss.), Kathy Jennings (Del.), Liz Murrill (La.), and Aaron Ford (Nev.).
Original source can be found here.