MIAMI (WSVN) - Super Bowl 54 is around the corner, and law enforcement agencies have collaborated to create a new hotline as part of a campaign to stop sex trafficking in South Florida.
They have also put up advertisements bearing the phone number 305-FIX-STOP (305-349-7867) as a reminder that if anyone suspects that someone is a victim of sex trafficking at the big game or any other event, help is just one call away.
“Working with these youth, I see that it doesn’t look like how the stereotype of what trafficking looks like in the movies,” Kristi House advocate Bradel Canfield said.
And it’s not just happening in the movies. It’s going on right here in our backyard.
Local, state and federal agencies are teaming up to combat sex-trafficking ahead of the upcoming Super Bowl.
“When you bring any major event, whether it be the Super Bowl or just any event, you’re naturally gonna have more tourists, more traffic,” Canfield said. “We have traffickers come from out of town with their victims to capitalize on that new market.”
They have set up the new hotline where people can report anything that doesn’t seem quite right.
You can text or call 305-FIX-STOP any time of the day or night.
“If you see something that’s suspicious, report it,” said another person with the campaign.
“We will have a team of law enforcement and service providers rescuing the victims and prosecuting the predators,” state attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle said.
Many different partners — from non-profits to the feds — have come together with one main mission in mind.
“This is a $150 billion industry worldwide and a $32 billion industry in the United States. It has to stop,” Fernandez-Rundle said.
And this is just the beginning of the campaign.
The sex trafficking hotline number will be posted on buses and throughout airports and seen all over South Florida, from Palm Beach to the Keys.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.