Trafficking training saves lives – Torrington Telegram

Jess Oaks

TORRINGTON – According to Wyoming Crime Statistics, 13 violent crimes have been reported by the Torrington Police Department since January 1, 2024. Violent crimes are defined by the report as murder, non-consensual sexual offenses, theft and serious assault.

Overall, statistically, Torrington and Goshen County are relatively safe places to live and raise a family. Our rural communities include the quiet town of Torrington, and many people use our highways and county roads that extend into adjacent states.

Ed Kimes, a longtime truck driver turned commercial driver's license (CDL) instructor at Eastern Wyoming College (EWC), said that while Goshen County seems like a fairly large space, it's important to stay vigilant about the fact that human trafficking could very well be happening right under our noses.

Human trafficking is a global crime in which people are bought and sold for forced labor or the sex trade and, according to Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT), traffickers use violence, manipulation and false promises of work or romance opportunities to lure, control and exploit their victims. victims.

Kimes teaches her CDL students how to handle situations where human trafficking is suspected, which includes signs to recognize the situation.

“We showed the students a few videos and then TAT asked us to have them each go through the online training and then take the test so they could better keep track of how many people were actually trained,” said Kimes. “We ask them to watch the online training video and take the test. Then they get the certificate.

Kimes explained that TAT training is not required for his CDL students, but he teaches it anyway.

“It’s not required, but we’ve been asked to teach it and we include it in our curriculum,” Kimes said. “We’ve even done this with our high school CDL students.”

“If you go to their website and take the training, there's a button at the top that showcases their trainings,” Kimes said. “The one we do is for commercial travel. There are truck stops, local drivers, school buses and truck drivers. We do this one for our commercial drivers. We're going to train in Wheatland this summer, I think, and I'll have those drivers look at the school bus version.

One of the training videos provided by TAT features “Nikki’s Story,” which is a six-minute interview with human trafficking survivor Nikki. Nikki explains how she became involved in trafficking and how she was able to escape her captor and flee to a nearby truck stop where she sat in fear for three days until an employee realized that Nikki was in danger thanks to TAT training.

“The idea is that this is the lifestyle they choose, but the reality is often that there is a story behind them. The majority of individuals engaged in prostitution or the sex industry are not there on their own and it is imposed on them,” said Esther Goetsch, executive director of TAT, during the training video. “Traffic exists everywhere in our country, but truckers are everywhere too. They are in locations where law enforcement is not and are in a unique position to see potential victims and be a point of safety for victims and recovery for victims of human trafficking.

“When individuals are educated on the signs of human trafficking and the reality of this crime, they can truly be agents of change,” Goetsch said. “They can be heroes in their daily work. »

The TAT training lists the following red flags for suspected victims of human trafficking: lack of knowledge of their whereabouts; does not control his identity card/passport, restricted or controlled communication; not allowed to speak for himself; being monitored or followed, any mention of setting a quota or having a pimp/daddy, signs of branding or tattooing of the trafficker's name (often on the neck), a van, campervan or vehicle with several women in a predominantly male area and/or dropping off the women and picking them up 15 to 20 minutes later and/or signs of bruising.

“He gave me a lot of respect,” Nikki said of the truck stop employee who recognized the signs of human trafficking. “He spoke softly. That's what it was. It was his compassion and non-judgment, just that little bit.

“Please don’t approach the traffickers. Allow law enforcement to deal with traffickers and recover victims. Approaching traffickers is not only dangerous for you and their victims, but could also lead to problems in possible prosecution of the traffickers,” TAT said.

Truckers are the eyes and ears of our roads, according to TAT, but training for public service employees is also beneficial.

“Truckstop employees who see a potential victim and make a call on their behalf may not see the outcome. They may not know what’s happening to that person, but their actions can actually make a difference in someone else’s life,” Goetsch said.

Kimes explained that on the second day of TAT training, students watch Nikki's story.

“Some of them have a really hard time watching,” Kimes said. “I had a guy, he’s a big tattooed guy, he had it all done and he asked me if he could have a moment. He went out and came back and said, 'I'm not going to lie to you, I cried outside.'

Kimes also shows the video interview of two young girls from Ohio who were rescued from a human trafficking operation.

“These two girls, 13 and 14 years old, were in Toledo, Ohio, and whoever picked them up convinced them that they knew these girls' families,” Kimes said. “They were supposed to pick them up and bring them back. So they had observed and studied them enough to say so.

“Training is accessible and free, so companies cannot cite cost to explain why they do not train. I’m actually a trafficking survivor too, so I really have a vested interest in raising awareness,” said Liz Williamson, training specialist and survivor leader for TAT. “My story is actually shared in the school bus video.”

“TAT is amazing,” Kimes said. “Every person who comes through is trained on this. We can offer it to other companies. This doesn't interest us much. »

Goshen County is near the 1-25 corridor.

“I-25 is a major traffic corridor,” Kimes said. “It stretches from Mexico all the way to Canada, so it’s a major trafficking corridor. I-80 is a busy corridor, and we live on US Highway 26 and people think 26 is not a busy road. Well, that's because you go from Oglala, Nebraska, all the way to Wheatland and then over there. So instead of going to Cheyenne, the trucks go through here and if the wind drops here, every single one of them goes through 26. People think it's Torrington. It’s Lusk, we don’t really have that here, but you don’t know if you have that here,” Kimes explained.

Goshen County is on the route to many tourist stops in the west.

“We are on the road to South Dakota. You don’t get to South Dakota without passing through here,” Kimes said.

“The reality is that trafficking takes place within communities, so making more people aware is key to prevention,” Williamson said. “If you look on our website, we have all kinds of programs: we work with trucking, bus, energy, school transportation and other sectors. All of our videos are approximately half an hour long and can be viewed internally through a corporate training platform or our website has the same training platform if a company wishes to use that instead,” added Williamson.

“I read once because Colorado is a very trafficked area, I read that a lot of it was husband and wife trafficking,” Kimes said. “You might see the couple and think they’re just an ordinary couple. What are you looking for? You look for, well, everyone knows to look for the signs of domestic violence, but it's a much calmer thing.

“They know how to choose their victims,” said Donna White, director of community education at EWC. “They know the signs of someone venerable.”

Kimes is excited to teach TAT training to his students because after all, the world is a very big place.

“You train a high school student or any driver here and you don’t know where they’re going to go,” Kimes said. “There’s a nationwide push in the trucking industry to really do this.”

“We all have value, no matter what,” Nikki said at the end of her interview. “Think of your mother or your sister or your daughter going through something like this.”

For more information about TAT or to report a non-emergency report, please visit the TAT website at: or the reporting line at 1-888-373-7888.