Tennessee senator highlights Belmont using data to combat human trafficking

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced the National Human Trafficking Database Act.

This legislation would establish a national human trafficking database through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and direct state law enforcement agencies to report their data.

The announcement comes as Blackburn highlights the success of Tennessee's data collection program. The program was implemented by Belmont University's Data Collaborative and Engage Together, an anti-human trafficking nonprofit.

“At the Belmont Data Collaborative, we love working on projects that do good for the community. We call it ‘data for good,’” explained Belmont Data Collaborative Deputy Director Dr. Marquinta Harvey. “We partnered with a nonprofit called Engage Together to work on human trafficking, understanding the data behind it to better understand the prevalence of human trafficking. »

This mindset is centered around the Data Collaborative, which partners with organizations and the community to solve complex problems by providing a comprehensive, open data warehouse and processes to deliver actionable solutions.

Human trafficking is one such complex problem they are working to solve. By partnering with Engage Together, they were able to identify where the people most vulnerable to human trafficking are located in Tennessee.

“Their approach is to survey the state, the community and understand what the strengths are in combating human trafficking and what the gaps are,” said Tommy Strickler, Belmont's data analytics manager. Data Collaborative. “Through data collaboration, our role in this project was to support them and help engage together and the organizations they work with to understand the vulnerabilities within the community that traffickers prey on most. often. »

There are currently no tools to track incidents of human trafficking, in part because many cases go unreported. However, through research, the Data Collaborative is able to create a clearer picture of the problem.

The research revealed the top five counties in Tennessee with the highest risk of human trafficking:

• 1. Shelby County
• 2. Madison County
• 3. Davidson County
• 4. Hamilton County
• 5. Bradley County

“To our knowledge and given the research, no community-based studies have been done to understand the vulnerability of these populations,” Harvey said. “When we consider a phenomenon like human trafficking, we need a deeper understanding. the data doesn't really exist, so to understand it we need to capture what's happening.

For a full overview of the project between Engage Together and the Belmont Data Collaborative, you can see their findings here: click here. If you are interested in joining forces with Belmont, you can contact [email protected].

“When we look at the data, we found that communities have patterns of vulnerability, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution,” Harvey said. “We can see that if we see a pattern that means there is a problem above the individual, there is a community problem.”