Panel discusses sex trafficking

Members of the Eastern Idaho community gathered Wednesday night in Ammon to discuss and learn more about human sex trafficking.

Hosted by KID NewsRadio, a panel made up of professors, law enforcement, activists, and even a human trafficking survivor, discussed the topic. They talked about what it is and how a community can disrupt it. Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery that can involve drug trafficking or sex trafficking. Panelists said one of the biggest things when it comes to human trafficking, is it’s hard to tell when it’s happening.

“There’s a certain amount of fear to contact authority,” Chief Bryce Johnson of the Idaho Falls Police Department, said. “And, you know, they’re being influenced by someone else. And there’s a dominating kind of effect there so it’s difficult to get the victims, to weed the victims out, get them to come forward because they’re vulnerable and they don’t just walk forward themselves.”

Chief Johnson also said while there has not been a sex trafficking case in Idaho Falls, that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.