BOSTON — Body-camera video shows Massachusetts troopers locate the victim of an apparent human trafficking attempt last month.
The 22-year-old neurodivergent woman had left her family in Southeastern Mass., to meet a man she had been talking to online, Mass. State Police said in a news release. She intended to take a Greyhound bus to Hartford, Conn., where she would meet two men who would transport her to Jamaica to visit the man she had been communicating with, the department said.
After her family called the police, troopers rushed to the South Station bus terminal where they learned her bus had left Boston early.
With lights and sirens, troopers tracked down the woman’s bus, stopped it on the Mass Pike, and safely located her to be reunited with her family.
Dr. Abigail Judge, clinical and forensic psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, founded the Boston Human Exploitation Advocacy Team (HEAT), working with women in ongoing sexual exploitation and trafficking in conjunction with ongoing addiction. Her work primarily involves individuals at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, a Boston hotspot for homelessness and drug use.
“Human trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation happens every day throughout the Commonwealth,” Judge said. “We work closely with the Boston Police Department human trafficking unit, and I know that they’re doing this work day and night.”
Judge told Boston 25 News preventing human trafficking requires recognizing what it actually looks like – and it’s usually not a scene from the movies.
“There’s a misperception that trafficking doesn’t happen in Massachusetts, and I think part of it is a misunderstanding of what trafficking actually is,” Judge said, explaining that trafficking involves “an individual of vulnerability, where there’s a power difference and when there’s money.”
“We see that with the P. Diddy trial, we see that at Mass and Cass every day,” Judge said. “Those are the dynamics of human trafficking which are far more prevalent and prominent than the notion of chains or transporting across state lines. Do those things happen? Yes. But trafficking in the Commonwealth is far more local, far more violent, and I think it’s important for people to reimagine, really understand what it looks like.”
More than 27.6 million people – both children and adults – are subjected to human trafficking globally, State Police said, recognizing January as National Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month.
“As a state public safety agency, we remain committed to raising awareness of this issue, educating the public about identifying the crime, and taking proactive steps to end this form of modern slavery,” the department said.
State police urge anyone who suspects someone is a victim of human trafficking to call 911 immediately.
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