Police on high alert as human traffickers plan World Cup blitz: 'Signals worth reporting'

By Andrew Caggiano, President, New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police

The stadium lights will be blinding; the crowds electric. And somewhere along the New Jersey Turnpike, in a hotel room booked under a fake name, a young person will be dreading a stranger’s knock at the door.

That is not a scare tactic. It is the reality that New Jersey police chiefs are preparing for as the World Cup comes to our state. And this reality looks nothing like what most people imagine.

Human trafficking is often not a story about strangers snatching victims off the street. It is a story about manipulation. About a boyfriend who turns controlling. About a recruiter who promises modeling work and delivers something else entirely. About a teenager who doesn’t know she’s a victim because her trafficker told her this is what love looks like.

By the time a victim understands what has happened to her, she has often been conditioned to distrust the very people — including police — who could help her.

New Jersey is a target of human trafficking, as we sit between New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, amid a dense network of highways, waterways, and hotels. This issue is of prime concern for the Volunteers of America Delaware Valley, which held its fifth-annual trafficking summit on April 22. I was pleased to participate, as well as other law enforcement, as we prepare for the summer ahead.

Major international sporting events create the conditions that traffickers exploit: a surge in demand, a flood of unfamiliar faces, overwhelmed hospitality infrastructure, and opportunity obscured by celebration. Northern New Jersey is at the heart of the tournament’s footprint. The motels, highways, and transit corridors that will carry the world’s soccer fans run directly through our communities.

Law enforcement is preparing accordingly, but there’s no way we can do this alone.

The front line against human trafficking is not a police cruiser on patrol. It is often a hotel housekeeper who notices a guest who never leaves the room. It is a ride-hail driver who sees something in the rearview mirror that doesn’t look right. It is a restaurant server, a gas station attendant, a dog walker.

Traffickers depend on public indifference. Your attention is one of the most powerful tools we have.

We also need to place a glaring spotlight on the people who create this nefarious marketplace. Without buyers, there is no business. Buying sex from a trafficking victim is a very serious crime in New Jersey, with years of jail time ahead. We will be watching, arresting, and publishing names.

If you work in hospitality, transportation, or any service industry that will be touched by World Cup traffic, please learn the important signs of someone in quiet distress. A person who won’t make eye contact. Someone who appears scripted when answering simple questions. A guest who has no identification and defers to someone else to speak for them.

They are signals worth reporting. Call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. Do not look away because you’re not sure.

The world is watching New Jersey. So are the traffickers. A difference between a rescue and a tragedy is often the phone call that you are willing to make.