Melissa Wright is the incoming board president of Tallahassee's Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center, known as STAC. It serves victims of human trafficking. Wright is also a banker – with a unique perspective on what trafficking looks like and how to stop it.
Wright says STAC did one of its trainings with the front-line staff at Capital City Bank, where she works, teaching them how to identify a person who's being trafficked. Soon afterward, one of the tellers noticed something.
"It was the person was controlled," Wright said. "And so, they wouldn't let the person talk. They talked for the person, they made deposits. And then, when [the teller] went back and looked at the transactions, they used a debit card, and you could see that they went to Jacksonville for a few hours, took a plane to Miami for a few hours, and then came back to Tallahassee – all in one day."
A recent study by the University of South Florida estimates more than half a million people are being labor-trafficked in Florida, and more than 200,000 are being trafficked for sex.
What the teller had seen was a young woman being sex-trafficked. STAC connected the bank to the local money-laundering task force at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
"When they called FDLE, FDLE said that 'We have been following this person, and this was just the last thing we needed to be able to go after them,'" said Wright. "So, it was a big case that was uncovered by just learning about how to identify what human trafficking is."
She says the signs of someone being trafficked aren't what most people think — until they learn more.
"It's not the getting-kidnapped victim," Wright said. "It is finding someone that's being forced, that's being controlled to come in and make deposits for them or open credit cards or to have inappropriate acts – that's what we're trying to teach them to look for."
WFSU: And those things happen in rural counties?
"Happens everywhere, unfortunately," Wright said. "It's all about greed."
A federal grant for STAC was just extended for one year – but it makes up 75 percent of the center's funding. Banker Wright says they'll be looking to diversify their funding sources.
STAC has served more than 270 victims of sex and labor trafficking and trained more than 23,000 people in the Big Bend since it was founded ten years ago. The trainings, known as STACPRO, are free.
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USF research lab releases groundbreaking report on the high prevalence of human trafficking in Florida: https://usf.app.box.com/s/yyub2nzjao514cjbzow7uflrn1c0kl8c/file/1907389717649
Call the National Human Trafficking Hotline, toll-free: at 1-888-373-7888. Anti-Trafficking Hotline Advocates are available 24/7 to take reports of potential human trafficking.
Text the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 233733. Message and data rates may apply.
Chat the National Human Trafficking Hotline via humantraffickinghotline.org/chat.
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