APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Milwaukee may be famous for beer, but it’s also become known as the “Harvard of pimp school”.
That’s according to a report in the UK Guardian, which also says Wisconsin’s largest city is up to 3rd in the nation in the number of young people rescued from human trafficking by the FBI. That ties Milwaukee with Las Vegas.
The effects of this hub being just 100 miles south can be felt right here in Northeast Wisconsin.
“Probably close to 75 percent of all our traffickers or pimps are out of Milwaukee,” says Appleton Police Lt. Steve Elliott. “There’s a lot of truth in the fact that Milwaukee is manufacturing these, basically predators.”
Elliott says it’s not just Wisconsin that has to deal with these graduates in sexual exploitation school, but other states in the region like Minnesota and South Dakota.
“Many of them traffic while living in Milwaukee and send their girls up here,” says Lt. Elliott. “But many of them are transplants from Milwaukee who come up here to live and pimp out local girls.”
Last month, the FBI teamed up with local law enforcement as part of “Operation Cross Country”.
10 adults considered victims were recovered in Brown County and 3 traffickers were arrested in that investigation. One adult was recovered and one trafficker was arrested in Appleton.
In the Guardian story, information from the FBI shows that over the past 4 years Milwaukee has “consistently ranked among the top five cities in the nation for the recovery of trafficked adolescents.”
“Part of the issue with us looking like we have a bigger problem than everyone else is we’re paying attention to it,” says Lt. Elliott. “There are many jurisdictions in many states that aren’t paying the attention that Wisconsin is to this problem.”
Elliott says human trafficking issues mirror those of the drug trade, and much like with narcotics, it’s not a problem the U.S. can arrest its way out of.
“Society as a whole has to figure out how to deal with this problem,” says Lt. Elliott.
Outagamie County’s Human Sex Trafficking Steering Committee is one way the region is trying to address all the facets of this crime. The nearly 50 member task force operates on a four-pillar system: prevention education, the court system, law enforcement and treatment and support.
The steering committee is working to reach 4 specific goals by June 2016, focusing at this point mainly on minors:
- Create an effective way to educate young people about the dangers of sex trafficking by making them aware of what to look for and how to avoid it.
- Develop a screening process to determine which kids are most at risk by creating a questionnaire.
- Develop a counseling program through school resource officers for kids who are or were victims of sex trafficking.
- Work with the court system to develop a better strategy for handling cases involving trafficked kids.
Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel has said that the Badger State will create a statewide sex trafficking task force based upon what Outagamie County has started.
