Wolf Administration Encourages Public to Recognize #WearBlueDay, Joins National Initiative to Combat Human Trafficking

Wolf Administration Encourages Public to Recognize #WearBlueDay, Joins
National Initiative to Combat Human Trafficking

1/9/2018-KING OF PRUSSIA

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Secretary Leslie S.
Richards today announced that the department has signed the U.S. Department
of
Transportation's Transportation Leaders Against Human Trafficking pledge,
and
urged the public to take part in the national #WearBlueDay initiative on
Thursday, January 11, the National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness.

With January highlighted as National Slavery and Human Trafficking
Prevention
Month, Richards also provided an update on the department's Governor's
Office
of Transformation, Innovation, Management and Efficiency (GO-TIME) project
that
includes training thousands of PennDOT and transit-agency employees to
recognize the signs of human trafficking.

"Joining this nationwide initiative will help us continue to share
resources
and best practices in Pennsylvania and across the country," Richards said.
"We
are just beginning to scratch the surface on how serious this problem is,
and
we're committed to doing everything we can to 'put the brakes' on it."

Through the department's GO-TIME project to modernize driver and vehicle
services operations, the department has trained 500 of its front-line
Driver
License Center employees to notice signs of a potential trafficking
situation.
PennDOT's 64 Welcome Center employees have also been trained.

In addition, through a partnership with the Pennsylvania Public
Transportation
Association, every transit agency director in the state has been trained
and
the aim is to have all of the nearly 15,000 transit agency employees
statewide
trained by July 1, 2018.

The training was developed by PennDOT in partnership with the Villanova Law

Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation, and Truckers against
Trafficking. The web-based training is also available to the rest of
PennDOT's
employees.

Additionally, PennDOT is now distributing wallet cards to Welcome Center
visitors as well as CDL holders and applicants at its Driver License
Centers,
which contain information regarding how to report a tip to law enforcement
when
suspecting human trafficking activities.

Pennsylvania enacted Act 105 in 2014 to define human trafficking and give
law
enforcement tools needed to go after traffickers.

There are various resources and information sources for human trafficking,
including:
• Blue Campaign (USDOT/USDHS Joint Initiative);
• Polaris (National human trafficking non-profit);
• Truckers Against Trafficking; and
• Villanova Law Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation.

Instances of human trafficking can also be reported to the National Human
Trafficking Resource Center at1-888-373-7888 or the U.S. Department of
Homeland
Security at 1-866-347-2423.

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