ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Workers at some hotels in Brown County are adding a new skill.
“It stands out quite a bit once you’ve had the training, so our staff knows what to look for, our managers know what to look for.”
Ron Zellers, General Manager at the Hampton Inn in Ashwaubenon, tells Fox 11 his staff, as well as other area hotel workers, are training to be able to spot and report signs of human trafficking.
Zellers also is the President of the Green Bay Lodging Association.
“The problem for both, on our end as operator of a hotel, and the other side of it, where someone basically is being a modern-day slave.”
Lt. James Valley says the sheriff’s department just started training staff at area hotels, but he says the program has been in the works for more than a year.
“Kind of work together in partnership where they can help us, and we can help them combat the problem.”
The National Human Trafficking Resource Center says human trafficking is when someone is forced to engage in sex acts against their will.
Valley says hotel employees are being trained to catch the tell-tale signs, like a don’t not disturb sign on a door for more than couple days.
“A lot of the individuals that come in, that are individuals of sex trafficking, they pay cash or they put the do not disturb sign for five days.”
He says the program has already led to arrests, “We responded, knocked on the door, and found there was human trafficking going on in the room.”
Hotel managers, like Zellers, say it’s a collaborative effort working to end sex trafficking in the area.
