Ahead of Super Bowl, a push to raise awareness about human trafficking

There are disputes about whether sex trafficking spikes in advance of events such as the Super Bowl. Nevertheless a New Jersey coalition, as well as others, are taking anti-trafficking steps.

New Yorks attorney general announced charges Thursday against 18 people for allegedly peddling party packs of cocaine and prostitutes often aimed at wealthy out-of-town visitors, including people coming to the area for Sundays Super Bowl in East Rutherford, N.J.

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It was the culmination of an 11-month investigation, and the attorney generals office says its still looking into whether human trafficking was involved.

Advocates for preventing sex trafficking and labor trafficking say the lead-up to major sports events around the world is a ripe time for educating people about these often-hidden crimes.

There are disputes about whether sex trafficking spikes in advance of events such as the Super Bowl, and some prominent anti-trafficking organizations say it would be difficult to document such a trend. Nevertheless, a coordinated effort is often launched to boost the training of hotel and transportation workers as well as law enforcement officers and to reach out with messages to potential customers and victims of the sex trade.

A big push around any big sporting event gives us an opportunity ... and raises awareness that will carry over, says Carol Smolenski, executive director of the nonprofit End Child Prostitution and Trafficking-USA. Its important for [sex trade] customers to understand that sexually exploited children are mixed in with the adults.

The New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking has taken a number of steps leading up to this years Super Bowl. It trained more than 200 volunteers to engage hotel managers in anti-trafficking efforts, for instance. Some of them took along bars of soap bearing the National Human Trafficking hot line number (888-373-7888) part of a project called S.O.A.P.: Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution.

In Indiana, similar outreach took place in advance of the 2012 Super Bowl. A report from the Indiana attorney general noted that the KlaasKids Foundation tracked Backpage.com female escort ads and found that four weeks before the Super Bowl, there were 17 ads, and the number rose steadily each week, culminating in 118 ads on Feb. 2 and 129 on Feb. 3. Many of the ads appeared to involve underage girls.

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Ahead of Super Bowl, a push to raise awareness about human trafficking