Hotels can unwittingly provide the rooms traffickers need for the sexual exploitation of women and children for profit. This project will empower hospitality staff through highly specialized training to recognize and report suspected activity to law enforcement. It will develop critical protocols to deter and disrupt this abhorrent crime and build a strong community partnership.
The commercial sexual exploitation of children impacts one of our most fundamental values- the freedom and dignity of every person. It is the fastest growing "lucrative" crime in the world, recently having surpassed even the drug trade, and represents a $150 billion industry. Hotels and motels are the primary location where sex is purchased. Hospitality staff and local law enforcement lack sufficient training to spot the crime, recognize victims, and take appropriate action.
Guardian Group provides specialized training, education, protocols and technology to law enforcement, victim services and the hotel industry to fight sex trafficking. This training will help to deter trafficking in hotels, making it too risky for traffickers to continue doing business there. Once certified, hospitality staff will be empowered to help identify and report illegal activity so that law enforcement can successfully track and prosecute traffickers and rescue sex trafficking victims.
This project will train the staffs of 40 hotels to identify sex trafficking and work with law enforcement to eradicate it from their establishments. It will also identify these hotels as safe-havens for victims as well as sex traffic-free zones for guests. As a result, hotels will be less vulnerable to misuse, buyers of illegal sexual services will no longer feel so anonymous, and for traffickers, a primary and formerly convenient location for their human trade activities will be shut down.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
