West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force

“We will not tolerate the victimization of vulnerable women here in Shelby County,” said Lieutenant Clayton Smith, commander of the Shelby County Drug Task Force to the press. His comments followed the arrest of fifteen men now accused of soliciting sex. The group reportedly includes former sports writer Robert Aaron Suttles, who left journalism to become the content director for “Yea Alabama,” the name, image, and likeness operation for Crimson Tide athletics. The arrests occurred during a human trafficking sting operation.

Rescue teams rushed to areas hit hardest by a pair of powerful earthquakes that rocked Venezuela, killing at least 164 people, injuring nearly 1,000 and trapping many under the rubble. Mariangel Rincon is from Caracas. She’s been checking in on family and friends in Venezeula while she studies abroad in Spain. Rincon was part of a U.S. State Department delegation that Alabama Public Radio addressed on the subject of human trafficking and investigating case of human rights violations.

The State of Alabama and a coalition of law enforcement and non-profit support groups have issued a new report on human trafficking. The study breaks down the issue into vulnerabilities and efforts at combating the crime, which includes sex trafficking and labor trafficking. The Alabama Public Radio newsroom spent fourteen months investigating this problem in the state.

Opponents of human trafficking in Alabama and around the nation are pointing more and more to a video game called Roblox. Three families in the state are suing the makers of the game. They say predators tried to use it to gain access to their children.

January marks national anti-human trafficking month. Lawmen say even small-town Alabama isn’t free of this crime, which is a billion dollar industry worldwide. The National Human Trafficking Hotline says it received over two hundred calls for help in 2023. The group says thirty-three of those callers were victims in this crime involving sex for money.

January is national anti-human trafficking month. It’s a campaign to focus on the billion dollar industry that deceives or forces people into being victims of sex or labor trafficking. Researchers at the University of Alabama in Birmingham are working at improving how trafficking can be tracked down on the internet.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Alabama. The Centers for Disease Control estimates nearly nine percent of women are victims of violence from their partners every year.

An Alabama state trooper was among those arrested in an undercover sting operation aimed at catching people who were intending to have sex with minors. The Montgomery County sheriff's office said in a Monday press conference that 11 men were arrested in the sting operation.

In part one of this series, we discussed the STANDD initiative and what they do. In this episode, we will discuss human sex trafficking, the problem itself.

Supply and demand are often connected to concepts of a purely material nature. The theories they inspire are usually related to increasing profits or understanding the financial needs of a community. However, researchers at the University of Alabama are applying these concepts to the disruption of illegal supply chains- namely human sex trafficking.