MCSO and ASU release figures from latest sex trafficking screening tool

INDEPENDENT MEDIA

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, in partnership since 2018 with Arizona State University's Sex Trafficking Response Research Office, released numbers from a new tool last week designed to help identify potential victims of sex and human trafficking.

In 2023, MCSO, ASU STIR, sex trafficking survivors and community partners developed a tablet-based screening tool for inmates at Estrella Jail, according to a release from the Sheriff's Office. Since July 1, 2023:

• 191 inmates passed screening and were identified as victims of sex trafficking.
• 109 of the detainees were interviewed by one of six in-custody human trafficking liaison officers and were connected with community service providers.
• 193 phone calls to the Arizona Human Trafficking Tip Line were made from MCSO prisons.
• Four detainees were placed in housing for trafficking survivors and provided other services upon release.

Additionally, officials said that since 2019, 10 traffickers have been identified through tablet activity and turned over to law enforcement detectives for further investigation.

More than 300 civilian, detention and sworn MCSO personnel have received training on sex trafficking as part of the collaboration with ASU, the release said. MCSO and ASU STIR also developed “state-of-the-art sex trafficking training for prisons and jails titled “Sex Trafficking Behind Bars.”

Training focuses on identifying victims in custody, how victims are recruited from behind bars, interviewing victims, connecting victims to community resources, and using intelligence in prison to identify traffickers in custody.

Training has been provided at the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office and the Arizona Department of Corrections and has been presented at state and regional conferences.