Human trafficking, animal cruelty, car thefts rise in annual KY crime report

Kentucky State Police released its 2023 Crime in Kentucky report this week. Overall, KSP said in a release that crime rates are largely stable. Over the past year, the state has seen small declines in several violent crimes; However, it wasn't across the board, and the report showed alarming increases in human trafficking, animal cruelty, and motor vehicle thefts.

The report is a summary of statistics made up of offense and arrest data sent in by law enforcement agencies across the state.

This graph shows the rate of crimes reported in both 2022 and 2023, the increase or decrease from year to year, and how much one crime represents the total portion of all serious crimes occurring in the state. While the number of incidents remained low at 60 for the year, the rate of human trafficking had the highest increase of them all at almost 40%.

This year, Kentucky lawmakers passed a new law, House Bill 3, ending airports, truck stops, hotels, and bus stations if they don't post mandatory human trafficking hotline awareness signs required by a prior 2020 law.

“We want to make sure that that number continues to get out there. And that was part of that original intent whenever we did in 2020 the legislation,” Rep. Suzanne Miles, HB 3's sponsor, told a committee of lawmakers in March. The bill also directs the attorney general to form a working group of law enforcement and advocates against human trafficking.

KSP said in its release that it believes the rise in human trafficking reports may be related to an increase in law enforcement training and a nationwide push for heightened community awareness. Animal cruelty rates also showed a sharp rise, which is another area lawmakers attempted to tackle this year too.

“Our animals are suffering here in Kentucky. We're seeing a lot of cases of neglect. sometimes we see intentional abuse. “We do about 1,600 calls for animal cruelty calls in a year,” Lexington animal cruelty investigator Jai Hamilton told FOX 56 earlier this year. Later this month, a new law will take effect, elevating serious abuse or torture of a cat or dog to a felony charge.

According to the report, despite these increases, animal cruelty and human trafficking make up less than one percent of serious crimes in the state. Motor vehicle thefts alone make up more than 5 percent and that rate rose by almost 18 percent; that's roughly more than 2,000 incidents by 2022. A new carjacking statute was also passed by lawmakers this year in the omnibus Safer Kentucky Act.

There are bright spots in the report showing declines in burglaries, robberies, sex crimes, kidnappings, and, for the third straight year, homicides. The largest reported decrease was in gambling crimes, by more than 87%, down to 6 total offenses for 2023, which is the same year Kentucky also legalized sports betting.

The full Kentucky crime report can be read here.