Sex trafficking panel: awareness and vigilance needed

The impetus of an educational panel on sex trafficking Tuesday night was to keep the difficult issue in the minds of community members who perhaps don’t think it affects Carson City.

“It’s important to understand it is everywhere,” said a member of Washoe County’s HEAT team (Regional Human Trafficking and Exploitation Unit) whose identity was kept confidential for security reasons.

For the event, Carson City Juvenile Services partnered with HEAT, the Carson City Sheriff's Office, Sexual Assault Response Advocates with Advocates to End Domestic Violence, and the survivor-assisting nonprofit Xquisite.

According to HEAT members, the unit, which consists of 15 officers including detectives and an FBI liaison, served 419 victims in 2023 including 79 juveniles, and 372 victims so far this year including 41 juveniles. The number of individuals recovered during law enforcement operations totaled 83 in 2023, with 31 juveniles, and 77 so far this year, with 21 juveniles.

Based in Washoe, the HEAT team assists surrounding counties. To get a better picture of the reality of sex trafficking in Carson, Brenda Sandquist, executive director of Xquisite, said in the last two years, the nonprofit has worked with 27 adults and 12 youth in Carson who have been victims of sex trafficking or sexual exploitation. The organization also works with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.

“We call our survivors diamonds because we place value on everybody that we serve,” Sandquist said.

Sandquist additionally told the Appeal different kinds of abuse commingled during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, the organization served 82 survivors and saw 331 calls through the tip line and drop-ins. So far this year, through June, the organization has served 64 survivors and has responded to 238 calls and drop-ins.

Xquisite’s 24-hour emergency hotline is 775-434-7255. The HEAT tip email address is rpdheat@reno.gov, and the team’s tip line is 775-325-6470.

Traci Trenoweth, a Sexual Assault Response Advocates coordinator for Advocates to End Domestic Violence, said that nonprofit saw more than 5,000 bed-nights in its shelter last year, adding “over half of our clients have had sex trafficking in their past.”

Carson City Sheriff’s Sgt. Brett Bindley oversees the department’s criminal investigation bureau and said Xquisite’s numbers mirror the sex trafficking cases CCSO sees. However, Bindley and other law enforcement personnel discussed the difficulty of diverting victims from trafficking and of prosecuting crimes. Victims can try to protect their pimp or handler, he said.

“The early intervention piece can’t be overstated,” the sergeant said, explaining the earlier the intervention, the likelier success becomes for the victim.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines sex trafficking as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.”

A HEAT member said the difference between pandering and trafficking is the element of coercion in the latter. And while people can have popular notions of sex trafficking from crime movies, the reality can be more subtle and insidious, such as a trafficker using the internet to recruit a teen, or a family member or friend manipulating their kin into prostitution.

“With juveniles, it’s all sex trafficking. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Romeo trafficker where they’re providing that love and support, or if they’re actually physically beating them … If they’re a minor, it is sex trafficking,” according to a HEAT member.

Carson City Mayor Lori Bagwell attended the panel and asked about recognizable signs of someone being trafficked.

HEAT members provided examples of red flags, such as a youth having two cell phones, or a youth suddenly showing off expensive products like new sneakers, or kids using secret pages on social media. “Bark” was one app recommended for parents to monitor kids’ social media use.

Tuesday also happened to be the 10th World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

“This year’s campaign focuses on raising awareness of the causes and vulnerabilities associated with child trafficking. It emphasizes the critical need for dedicated support for child victims of trafficking and urges the public and policymakers to address the current shortcomings and accelerate action to #EndHumanTrafficking,” the United Nations said in a message.

According to the U.N., one in three victims of human trafficking globally is a child, “and the majority of these trafficked children are girls.”

More information is online: https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-human-trafficking-day.

As pointed out Tuesday, the majority of sex trafficking victims in Northern Nevada are girls, but that doesn’t mean there are no male victims. Males, however, are less likely to come forward, according to HEAT members.

“I do think the kids know more than we think they know,” said Sandquist.

Sandquist urged nonprofits to work with law enforcement to combat the problem.

“If we all know each other, then we know who to call when we have a need,” she said. “If we all know each other, and we work together as a community, we’re going to be way more powerful.”