TAT training has resulted in reports of hundreds of possible trafficking cases from truck drivers to the national hotline, leading to victim recoveries and the arrest of criminals. Check out our Harriet Tubman Award winners to hear the stories of those drivers who’ve directly supported the road to freedom for a victim of sex trafficking, and learn how you or someone on your team could be the next award winner!

Whether the van operator is an OTR driver, or operating regionally/locally, many of the same red flags apply:

• Any time you see a minor engage in a commercial sex act
• Any time you believe you are witnessing someone under the control of a pimp, regardless of the age or gender of the victim
• If a passenger vehicle pulls into the truck parking area of a rest area or truck stop and multiple people (usually females) get out of the vehicle and begin going from truck to truck
• Any time you hear a suspected victim mentioning that he/she has to make a quota
• People that seem to have a lack of knowledge of their surroundings or area
• Someone that appears to have restricted or controlled communication or is unable to speak for her/himself
• Suspected victims that have signs of branding (tattooing that would indicate ownership of a particular trafficker)

Red flag indicators of potential labor trafficking may look like:

• A bedroom or area separate from the rest of the family home that appears to be in a different condition (i.e., different standard of living, cleanliness, number of personal effects, etc.) than the other family bedrooms
  • • Is there a mattress on the floor (or substandard arrangement) in the basement or garage that appears to be the bedroom area of a particular “family member”?
    • Are there multiple people living in close quarters that seem to have a different standard of living than other people in the household?
• Evidence of excessive security at the home
• A bedroom or part of the home that has a lock on the outside of the room, rather than the inside
• Evidence that appears to indicate the person is only a guest in the home
• Certain people at the property who are not as engaging as others in the family, as if they have been told not (or are unable) to communicate with the movers

Movers and home delivery personnel may have the opportunity to witness signs of human trafficking taking place at a residential brothel or home of exploitation by either physically entering the home or noticing red flags going on in a neighborhood in which you are working. Red flags may look like:

Within the home of the job:

• Evidence of bedrooms with locks on the outside of the door
• An unusual amount of pornographic material or pornographic material that is overt and in your face
• Evidence of lots of condoms (either new or used), especially in rooms that appear to be bedrooms of minor children
• Evidence of video equipment in bedrooms or closets adjacent to bedrooms, especially bedrooms of minors
• Overt evidence of drugs and/or weapons
• Children that, when engaged, are not shy about using explicit language or bragging about sexual activity
• Potential victims that have signs of branding

In the neighborhood of the job:

• Lots of traffic (typically men) in and out of one particular residence over the course of the move
• Extreme security measures at that particular home that appear out of place

Click here for a case study.

Movers and home delivery personnel may also have the opportunity to notice human trafficking red flags if the job they are at is the home of the trafficker and his victim(s). In these situations, red flags may be:

• Evidence of drugs/weapons
• Evidence of porn and/or lots of condoms
• A house with minimal furniture, especially in the bedrooms
• Bedrooms that lack any personality or personal effects of the occupant
  • • Does the occupant seem like a guest in the home?
    • Is the room sparsely furnished with perhaps only a suitcase of clothes in the room or the closet?
• Windowless bedrooms or odd traffic patterns to the home (i.e., victims occupying back bedrooms that would have to pass by another bedroom that the suspected trafficker may occupy)
• Multiple women’s clothing either in one bedroom or all bedrooms
  • • Traffickers have also been known to keep the nicer, “working” clothes of their victims within their own bedrooms, so that they can dictate what a woman wears before going out
• Multiple women in the home at the time of the move, perhaps trying to sleep during the mid-day move
• Potential victims that have signs of branding