KENT COUNTY, Mich. — The Kent County Sheriff’s Office hopes an anonymous donation will help provide better support to human trafficking victims and hold more perpetrators accountable.
Last Thursday, the Kent County Board of Commissioners accepted and appropriated $135,000 given to KCSO to support its Human Trafficking Task Force.
The donor, who requested anonymity, specified the agency use $125,000 to hire an additional, full-time human trafficking investigator and $10,000 to the needs of victims during an emergency response according to a copy of the resolution obtained by FOX17.
KCSO formed the task force in 2022. In partnership with three victim service providers, Safe Haven Ministries, Crisis Aid International, and Sacred Beginnings, it aims to take a trauma-informed approach that helps victims get needed care and prosecute exploiters.
“We’ve really worked to try to make sure we're not just looking for one thing, that we're working for numbers of things, and that we're doing it in many places so that people can be identified and helped,” said KCSO Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young. “That help looks different. Sometimes it's an investigation, sometimes it's hotel money for the night with a dinner and a meeting with Safe Haven or another program locally, that will give them more long term direction.”
Two full-time investigators and one part-time investigator currently make up the team. LaJoye-Young says an additional member will allow them to take a more proactive approach.
“It’s our responsibility to pay that forward to make sure that this program is right sized, and continues to develop,” said LaJoye-Young.
According to KCSO, the task force investigated 45 cases in 2023 which led to 22 victims helped and 13 arrests, three of which were for human trafficking.
Becky Diffin, the community advocacy manager at Safe Haven Ministries, believes numbers like that encourages victims to come forward and become survivors.
“The more that survivors see, ‘No, my trafficker can be held accountable,’ and they can be sent to prison for these crimes, the more that that happens, I feel like the more survivors are willing to open up and reach out [to law enforcement],” said Diffin.
Diffin defines human trafficking as the exploitation of another person for financial gain through forced, fraudulent, or coerced sex or labor. She adds it’s often done by someone the victim knows and perpetrators target vulnerable populations like unhoused people or LGBTQ+ youth.
“We as a society, and our systems, need to do better about responding to housing instabilities, access to mental health, all of those different systemic things because if the system is providing those needs, then a trafficker can come along and say, ‘Well, I can do those things for you,’” said Diffin.
Diffin and LaJoye-Young encourage people to report suspected cases of human trafficking to police or advocacy organizations. They note agencies can discretely work with victims too if they reach out.
“It’s incumbent on all of us to keep that [human trafficking] from happening to maintain that community value of helping each other, that community value of caring for one another, and understanding that there's not just one approach to do that ever,” said LaJoye-Young.
If you or someone you know is being trafficked, you can contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or click here. Locally, people can call or text Safe Haven Ministries at 616-452-6664.
