CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Huge electronic billboards are now among the state's latest tools to fight human trafficking. Some will be turned into message boards to help people recognize and report crimes.
A news conference was held Wednesday on Padre Island where a number of state officials were on hand to voice their support for this new campaign against human trafficking.
"Today is the start of awareness, and we'll continue to spread that word," Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez said. "If you see something say something."
Gonzalez highlighted the need for people to report the crime. The state is hoping that people will see electronic messages on those billboards and remember to call police if they know or suspect that human trafficking is taking place.
"They're going to place them in certain areas of the state to do kind of testing of how well they work, and they'll be in different areas of Corpus Christi as well," State Rep. Todd Hunter said.
The State Attorney General's Office said that at any given time, our state has some 234,000 victims of labor trafficking. Another 79,000 are kids who were forced to work in the sex trade.
"We're just trying to make sure people will know that there's a national human trafficking hotline that you can call, and if you see something that doesn't look right you may be saving someone's life," Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughs said.
While everyone from Nueces County Sheriff John Hooper to our state representatives showed up to the meeting. They all know the importance that the public can play in stopping what's basically modern day slavery.
"It's always better to make the report than it is not," CCPD Capt. Donald Moore said. "Let us determine whether or not it's nothing, but if it is something, then great, you've helped someone out."
The billboards will feature different hotlines you can call for different trafficking crimes, and they are in English and Spanish.
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