Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Las Vegas billboard campaign aimed at combating human trafficking

Human Trafficking Awareness FBI

Mikayla Whitmore

Clear Channel Outdoor-Las Vegas President Adam Barthelmess, left, and Aaron Rouse, special agent in charge of the Las Vegas Division of the FBI, speak during a news conference Sept. 21, 2017, to announce a billboard campaign to fight human trafficking.

Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign

A conference was held to announce the FBI's joint partnership with Clear Channel Outdoor to increase Human Trafficking Awareness in Las Vegas, Nev. on September 21, 2017. Launch slideshow »

As part of an effort to combat human trafficking, Las Vegas commuters today will begin seeing electronic billboards showing a woman’s mouth being covered by a man’s hand.

“Human trafficking: We’ll listen; we’ll help,” read the billboards in English, Spanish and Chinese. The message is accompanied by the number for an FBI-operated, 24-hour hotline — 888-373-7888 — that victims and possible witnesses can call for help.

The displays, which will run for a year, appear on 10 local Clear Channel Outdoor billboards and are expected to rotate among the rest of the company’s 56 area signs. The campaign was outlined today by the local office of the FBI and the media company’s Las Vegas president.

Human trafficking is a nationwide problem, said Aaron Rouse, special agent in charge of the Las Vegas Division of the FBI.

“We want to highlight it here, because we don’t want the human traffickers to feel like this is a safe haven, and we want to rescue as many people as we possibly can to make Las Vegas a place to recreate, not to be enslaved,” he said.

The majority of victims — 70 percent — are trafficked for prostitution, while about 30 percent are trafficked for labor, Rouse said.

“If you’re selling someone or if you’re keeping somebody captive or in indentured servitude, whether it’s sex trafficking or labor trafficking, you’re on the wrong side of the law,” he said.

From 1994 through early May, Metro Police have recovered roughly 2,200 victims of sex trafficking, according to the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. Last year, Metro recovered 107 children who were victims of human trafficking.

In June, Clear Channel Outdoor-Las Vegas approached the FBI about joining in the billboard campaign, said Adam Barthelmess, the company’s local president. Such campaigns have proved effective in other markets, he said.

It’s the “power, duty and responsibility” of the public to insert itself into the human trafficking dialogue to “become a force for positive change in the fight,” Barthelmess said.

Rouse noted the FBI’s partnerships with corporations to combat the problem.

The FBI recently honored the Aria security department for “becoming a leader in combating human trafficking and interacting with women who are victims of predators” by providing awareness training for security officers, the agency noted on its website.