SALT LAKE CITY — Investigators in Phoenix, Arizona will be on high alert for possible human trafficking this Super Bowl weekend. Additionally, as the NBA All-Star game comes to Salt Lake City, investigators will potentially remain diligent.

Terry Palmer with Three Strands Global, a charity that fights human trafficking, joins Jeff Caplin’s Afternoon News to discuss the issue and how to prevent it.

Beginning the conversation, Caplan asks about the connection between big sporting events and human trafficking.

Palmer says anytime a large event, such as a sporting event, comes into town, the volume of all crimes increases. 

“Especially those crimes that are committed against those who are most vulnerable,” she tells Caplin. “So, exploitation and human trafficking often increase when these events come into town.”

Teaming up to fight human trafficking

As days get fewer and fewer until the NBA All-Star game in Salt Lake City, Palmer says education on the issue is important.

“Three Strands Global Foundation’s mission is to end human trafficking through education, employment and engagement,” she says. “One of the ways we’ve been engaged recently was with UTIP, the Utah Trafficking In-person Taskforce.”

Palmer goes on to say Three Strands Global and UTIP have put together a toolkit for all businesses can use.

“They can put up posters in their business, there’s some … things they can put on their social media,” she says. “[There are] all sorts of ideas to educate the community about human trafficking and how they can spot it, look for it [and] report it.”

Learn more the tool kit here.

Along with this, Palmer says the UTIP Taskforce has been working with survivor advocacy groups. With these advocacy groups, she says UTIP is working to make sure that anyone who may be exploited during the upcoming All-Star Weekend can get the services they need.

Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News can be heard on weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m.

Related: UHP arrests man suspected of trafficking New England teen

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