Human trafficking back in spotlight

Updated: Thursday, 18 Jul 2013, 10:58 PM EDThttp://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/crime/human-trafficking-back-in-spotlight
Published : Thursday, 18 Jul 2013, 10:12 PM EDT

• Brooke Martin 

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - An issue highlighted when the Super Bowl came to Indy, is back in the spotlight thanks to a group of grad students at IUPUI.

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an entire city to save one from human trafficking.

"We need to tell people about human trafficking. This doesn't just happen overseas. We need to make sure people know it's happening right here," said Event Organizer, Emily Bales.

If fact, IMPD says they now have at least one case a month.

"When Super Bowl hit, we got four cases," said an undercover officer.

When Indianapolis hosted the Super Bowl in 2012, authorities say it also hosted a spike in trafficking cases.

"It was a huge event for human trafficking issues, because with all those people brings all that money opportunity and so it brings opportunity to traffic people," said Bales.

That was the first time all city agencies got together in a united front to combat the issue. Thursday night was the second; an effort by IUPUI grad students to not let the problem fall out of the city's focus.

"I think that when you get a lot of people together with the same intention that there's kind of a special energy that builds," said Addison Demaree with The Village Experience.

"We would really like to see this continue, this relationship between all the people working on this locally and see this continue to grow, because they came together for the Super Bowl but you know they all have their different projects and everybody gets back into the grind of their own things so this just brings everybody back together again," said Bales.

There are a few organizations in Indianapolis working to fight the crime. If you'd like to volunteer, contact one of these organizations, who were at Thursday's meeting:

• Purchased
• The Village Project
• The Indiana Commission for Women
• The Julian Center