Vol. 128, No. 124 Tuesday, April 23, 2019
OPINION
SPORTS
ARTS & CULTURE
Students should care about Green New Deal
Brandon DeLay leads by example
Local artists to perform at FoCoMX
page 6
page 11
page 13
The presence of I-25 drives human trafficking from other cities and states to Northern Colorado, according to Fort Collins Police Officer Laura Knudsen. In Fort Collins, typically the solicitation of human trafficking and sex work happens over the internet and in businesses-like hotels. COLLEGIAN FILE PHOTO
FCPS, advocates see ‘more trafficking than we know’ in Fort Collins By Ravyn Cullor @RCullor99
Whether it’s in a motel or over the internet, human trafficking is happening in Northern Colorado, and limited resources and misconceptions about the issue make investigating and helping survivors harder. Laura Knudsen, one of two
officers in the Fort Collins Police Service Neighborhood Enforcement Team investigating human trafficking, said while people have been largely unaware of human trafficking activity in Fort Collins, it is happening in the area. “We were kind of a community that denied it for a long time,” Knudsen said. “A lot of that had to do with ignorance and lack of
education surrounding the topic ... because everyone thinks of Fort Collins as a nice little town, but we’re going to have it everywhere.” What is human trafficking? Human trafficking in Colorado covers prostitution or other commercial sexual activity in which the victim is coerced into participating, Knudsen said. “That could be transporting
them, recruiting them, soliciting them or harboring them,” she said. Knudsen also said if the victim is a minor, there does not have to be coercion to be considered human trafficking. While human trafficking must include prostitution, the element of coercion separates victims of human trafficking from willing participants in
commercial sexual activity. “There’s this idea that, particularly in prostitution, it’s two consensual adults,” Knudsen said. “(With human trafficking), that’s false. Most of them are being controlled by somebody, almost like a domestic violence relationship.”
see TRAFFICKING on page 4 >>