Summit Highlights Ongoing Efforts to Stop Human Trafficking in Tarrant County

Law enforcement and anti-trafficking advocates say awareness and education remain crucial in the crusade to combat human trafficking.

A summit Wednesday hosted by the 5 Stones Task Force included Tarrant County law enforcement, elected officials, and a survivor of human trafficking. The task force is a community network engaged in collaborative efforts to end domestic sex trafficking in Tarrant County.

According to the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office, detectives investigated 263 cases of human trafficking and internet crimes against children in 2022. The investigations led to over 100 arrests and identified 96 individuals who were victims of human trafficking or at a high risk of exploitation. However, law enforcement officials said the numbers may not always be reliable because crimes related to human trafficking are not always reported.

"Or the biggest thing is, they don't think they're a victim," Fort Worth detective Maria Orand said. "If you don't think of yourself as a victim, you're not going to come forward and say anything."

Orand is a detective with the Human Trafficking unit at the Fort Worth Police Department and one of the speakers at Wednesday's summit. According to Orand, human trafficking is the fastest-growing crime in the country.

In the U.S., Texas is among the top four states with the highest number of cases.

"We have the highways that come through here all from the south, all the way to the north. We have international airports that daily fly in and out," she explained. "They [people] think of the movie "Taken" like it's that type of being kidnapped and being chained up when it's actuality, it's being introduced to them by people that they know. Or people that they trust or people they think they can trust that they've met online."

For Kimberly Mull, the potential dangers of meeting someone online were realized at the age of 11. She grew up near Amarillo and described her family as loving. Her father worked in law enforcement and her mother worked two jobs.

"Between the hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., I was a 'latch-key' kid," Mull recalled.

When she was 11 years old, she met someone online. He happened to have an apartment not far from her home. Unbeknownst to her at the time, she was being groomed for child pornography. Mull said it took years for her to realize what she experienced was trafficking.

"Multiple adults coming in, bringing multiple children in. Several I know from the Dallas-Fort Worth area," she said. "I was never kidnapped. I was never held in a basement. I was never dirty. I was always home for dinner."

At the summit Wednesday, leaders expressed the need for change in order to put an end to trafficking. Change comes with honest and tough conversations, said Fort Worth mayor Mattie Parker.

"As much as we like to turn another cheek and think about it, especially when you're raising small children…to think about the reality that there is evil in our world," Mayor Parker said. "Especially here in Fort Worth, we have the dubious distinction in Texas and North Texas as one of the top places for victims of human trafficking to be picked up."

In 2021, Texas became the first state in the country to make sex buying a felony.