Rescue Houston surpasses Polaris National Trafficking Hotline

Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Anti-Human Trafficking Office recently provided the Polaris 2017 hotline statistics for the City of Houston. Last year, the National Human Trafficking Hotline received 641 total calls from Houston, of which 218 are verified sex trafficking cases with approximately 104* calls made by potential victims in our community.

We celebrate the growth of the national hotline, a strategic partner enabling law enforcement and local community groups to identify and hold accountable the organizations, industries, and individuals who exploit victims of human trafficking.

Likewise, Rescue Houston is pleased to report that in 2017, we received 242 calls to our local hotline, with 44% of those calls made by victims of sex trafficking. Our hotline advocates spoke with 173 victims of human trafficking, and 78 of them left the sex trade with the help of our exit teams, client advocates, and exit path mentors. Thank you, Houston!

This is no competition we’re in—it’s a battle to quit the engine of exploitation that profits from vice at the expense of the vulnerable. We are thankful to do our part in making our 24/7 local hotline and exit process available to victims of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation, and seek to do it increasingly well in the year ahead.

For more information or to learn more about our 2018 strategic initiatives, visit rescuehouston.org. 

*based on average percentage of victim and survivor calls recorded from 2014 to June 2017