SC asks truck drivers to help fight human trafficking

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - It’s a simple request that could many lives. State Attorney General Alan Wilson has teamed up with truckers around the state to help stop human trafficking.

“We’re asking people to be good human beings,” Wilson said. “Getting them trained up through this campaign so that they can identify and report it when they see it...the United States is the number one place for human trafficking in the world.”

This push is called South Carolina Highway Heroes: Truckers Against Trafficking.

More than 100,000 postcards will be sent out to Commercial Driver License holders, inviting those drivers to watch a free training video about what trafficking signs to look for and how to report it.

“A lot of traffickers take their trafficking victims to truck stops,” Wilson said. “To rest areas, where truckers might be staying overnight...they’ll hear a knock on the cabin of their truck, there’s a young woman there offering services. That is an example.”

Officials say everyone should look out because one never knows who could fall victim to human trafficking, or how they could help.

“Victims can be any age, young children all the way up to full grown adults,” Wilson said. “I want people to know that it can be anybody, anywhere, at any time, and we need to have more eyeballs looking at it.”

Data from a 2020 report online from the attorney general’s office showed 75 charges of human trafficking pending in South Carolina State Courts, with 22 different defendants.

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