Human trafficking training

We believe that by equipping people who are specialists in their own field with relevant, comprehensive and practical guidance, we can increase the number of victims identified and improve the response and help offered by organizations like yours.

We offer instructor-led training (in-person and virtual) or online courses to complete in your own time via the Hope for Justice Learning Academy portal.

(Looking for training outside of the USA? See our training options for the UK and Northern Ireland.)

The Hope for Justice Learning Academy is a dedicated online learning portal offering interactive training for the public and for frontline practitioners including clinicians, law enforcement and employees and management within the hospitality industry. 

Our investigators train U.S. counter-narcotics agents, for example at Atlanta Carolinas HIDTA (pictured). Drug traffickers look to increase profits and market control through diversification, using trafficking routes for drugs, labor, sex, and violence. Transporting people for sex, usually women and children, is just another egregious source of profits for these violent criminals.

Among the places we provided training was New Mexico, following an invitation by the New Mexico HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) Program. Hope for Justice Investigator and Trainer Bill Loucks, who knows the issues firsthand, having been a former law enforcement officer for more than 15 years, said: “Human trafficking training for law enforcement is critical to effectively fight modern-day slavery.”

He and fellow investigator Jeff Bolettieri also provided similar training to the New England HIDTA. Jeff said: “How can we eradicate modern slavery? The answer is education. We must bring awareness to everyone. Not only law enforcement and prosecutors, but also healthcare providers, hospitality, banking personnel and the general public. The police cannot do this alone.”

After successfully training federal agents at the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) in New York, pictured below, Hope for Justice was invited to provide human trafficking training at other DEA offices. “Law enforcement is waking up to the fact that there is a real nexus between human trafficking and drug trafficking – the perpetrators are often the same people,” explained our team leader, Richard Schoeberl.

Another example of our training in action is when Hope for Justice delivered training to Bank of the West’s 10,000 employees so they are equipped to identify human trafficking in-person and in customers’ financial transactions. Workers in this sector can be a frontline defense against human trafficking, which is a tragedy for millions of individuals – but for criminals, it is big business. Their profits and expenses leave a trace through their financial transactions. Banks and other financial institutions are in a prime position to spot the signs of trafficking, which generates an estimated $245 billion of illegal profits every year. These profits have to be disguised before they can be introduced into the legitimate financial system (money laundering). Through their anti-money laundering strategies, banks have an opportunity to detect the criminals responsible. Research by BAE Systems found that 69% of U.S. financial institutions have had to investigate transactions linked to trafficking, much higher than other reported markets. But 75% of employees at financial institutions are not confident in their ability to identify human trafficking signs among transactions.

Hope for Justice has developed training to equip bank employees to identify indicators of trafficking in a person’s financial transactions or when they use a bank’s services. This training – a 45-minute online course followed by in-person training – is being rolled out across Bank of the West’s 600 branches. If a bank employee has reason to suspect a customer of being involved in trafficking, as a victim or perpetrator, they can file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR). This is then investigated by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is a division of the U.S. Treasury.

Richard Schoeberl (pictured), Hope for Justice’s U.S. Team Leader for Investigations & Training, explained: “It’s about spotting what should be there but isn’t, as well as what is there but shouldn’t be. A typical person’s bank account will show money going out for bills, groceries, car payments. But someone having their finances controlled by a trafficker won’t have those expenses. Instead, you might see lots of cash coming in and out, or charges for online advertisements, hotel rooms, and multiple cell phones.”

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime has found “deeply entrenched economic and societal inequalities that are among the root causes of human trafficking,” with traffickers adapting their methods to take advantage. The Global Slavery Index recently estimated that there are more than 1 million people in the U.S. living in conditions of modern-day slavery. This means up-to-date training is more important than ever.