This week, state Attorney General Ashley Moody lighted Florida’s Historic Capitol blue to raise awareness of human trafficking.
The lighting of the capitol also reinforces the Blue Campaign—an initiative created to educate law enforcement, the public and other industry partners on how to spot and report cases of human trafficking. Tuesday marked National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
Moody said she hopes that by illuminating the Capitol blue it will encourage more people to join the fight to end human trafficking.
“One way we stop human trafficking is by shining a light on these atrocities. By illuminating the state capitol blue in recognition of Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and working with our government and community partners to increase awareness, we can encourage more Floridians to join our fight to end this horrific crime,” Moody said.
In 2020, the National Human Trafficking Hotline reported 738 human trafficking cases in Florida. In 2019, more than 900 human trafficking cases were reported in Florida, showing a dramatic decrease from 2019 to 2020.
Human traffickers know no bounds and target victims of all ages, sexes, ethnicities and demographics. Last week, Moody released a video recognizing Human Trafficking Prevention Month and calling on Floridians to learn how to spot and report this atrocious crime.
To learn the signs of human trafficking, visit YouCanStopHT.com—a site developed as a tool to help teach Floridians how to spot and report human trafficking.
Moody is the Chair of the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking. The council consists of 15 members from law enforcement, prosecutors, legislators and experts in the health, education and social services fields who work to build on existing state and local partnerships to combat human trafficking.
Last October, Moody launched the 2021 Human Trafficking Summit. More than 4,000 attendees from more than 40 states registered to watch the summit, accessing approximately 16 hours of educational content.
Additionally, Moody is working with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to train truck drivers to spot and report human trafficking through the Highway Heroes campaign. Since the launch of the campaign, nearly 4,600 commercial truck drivers have received anti-human trafficking training and are now equipped to help keep an eye on Florida’s 12,000 miles of highways and report suspicious activity to law enforcement.
Moody also launched a new human trafficking prevention initiative at the Florida Capitol on Wednesday.
