On May 5, 2023, with the assistance of the LifeChoices team in partnership with the RISE Coalition, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office conducted a victim-centered human trafficking operation. Jasper County detectives, along with a detective from Joplin Police Department, made contact with four people who were offering prostitution services at a hotel in Jasper County. During the investigation these individuals were offered medical services and social services. Several of them responded by seeking services offered. One individual was taken into custody for warrants out of multiple jurisdictions. One individual was arrested for prostitution.
The primary goal of this operation was to identify potential victims of human trafficking and connect them with services including providing means and alternatives to safely get away from traffickers. A secondary goal of the operation was to locate the human traffickers of these victims and arrest them.
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office takes its role seriously in the effort to combat human trafficking in our County and will continue to work with other agencies and local victim advocate groups in the future to further identify victims and traffickers, as well as the customers of these victims.
Sheriff Kaiser, who is a member of the Missouri Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Task Force, said, “Human trafficking isn’t just a border problem, or a big city problem, we are faced with this very serious situation right here in Jasper County. I am proud of the work being done in Jasper County to disrupt the human trafficking issue.”
