LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A new campaign that targets human trafficking just rolled out on buses and transit shelters across the Las Vegas valley. The purpose is not only to educate riders but to also teach bus drivers and others in the transportation industry how to identify trafficking.
The national campaign is called “Busing On The Lookout.” It launched a year ago by an organization called Truckers Against Trafficking.
Las Vegas is the first city in the United States to display the “Busing On The Lookout campaign posters at transit shelters and on RTC buses.
“It is an issue, and I think it will help a lot; you know,” Traci Booker, bus rider? “I just hope everyone is just aware of this sex trafficking going on here.”
Traci Booker usually waits at the Sahara and eastern bus stop, which is one of the roughly 50 transit shelters with the latest anti-human trafficking campaign.
The Busing On The Lookout or the BOTL initiative launched earlier this month. Along with transit shelters, the posters are splattered on more than 200 RTC buses.
All of the posters have information addressing the growing human trafficking problem in the Las Vegas valley.
“I can tell you that in the last 10 years, it has become increasingly worse,” said Trooper Brian Drohn, Nevada Highway Patrol.
So why market the message on buses and transit stations?
A report from Polaris last year says more than 40 percent of trafficking survivors in their study used buses. Also, roughly 25 percent acknowledged mass transportation helped with their exit attempt.
Nevada Highway Patrol and other partners addressed the media campaign on Tuesday. Reporter Cristen Drummond has the story.
