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Police department host training session on human trafficking
The Roswell Police Department hosted a joint training session for a group of law enforcement officers to better prepare for human trafficking. The training was held to help officers spot victims of human trafficking.
ROSWELL, Ga. - About three dozen officers from different law enforcement agencies took part in an in-depth training session Monday to help them spot the signs of human trafficking.
The Roswell Police Department hosted the training in conjunction with Roswell Rotary, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
"It's something that the Roswell Police Department takes very seriously and obviously, as you can see by the collaborative partnerships that we have with our community, it's something that our community takes very seriously," said Roswell Police Public Information Officer Timothy Lupo.
The training walked officers from Roswell, Johns Creek, Sandy Springs and other jurisdictions through the common misconceptions about human trafficking.
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"We often hear about these very dramatic cases of human trafficking, but it's a much more prevalent issue than we may recognize," Lupo explained. "So, being able to have the tools and abilities to recognize those situations that may not fall under the stereotypical expectations of what human trafficking looks like, being able to give our officers those skills and knowledge to be able to recognize those things is very important."
Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp helped open the training session.
"Because of these trainings, it lets us have so many more eyes and ears, boots on the ground," said Kemp.
Addressing human trafficking has been a focus of the First Lady's since her husband, Gov. Brian Kemp, took office in 2019. In 2020, Marty Kemp and the GRACE Commission implemented human trafficking training for all state employees.
"I hear stories all around the state that because of that training, they recognized something that you know, just gave them a weird feeling — a gut feeling — they called law enforcement and they were right," said Marty. Kemp. "That's just amazing to me."
On Friday, Gov. and First Lady Kemp presented a commendation to Georgia Department of Transportation worker Robert Denison.
According to GDOT, Denison was working on a bridge in Chatham County when a man stopped to ask him where he could leave a little boy for a couple of hours. Denison could tell something was wrong and he contacted local law enforcement. Police located the man and found a stash of guns in his car. The man allegedly told officers that he planned to have a shootout with police.
GDOT credits Denison's human trafficking training with helping him recognize the interaction as suspicious and providing police the detailed information they needed to help stop the man.
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