JACKSON — Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings issued a joint statement Monday praising changes to the National Human Trafficking Hotline and expressing hope for stronger collaboration with state officials moving forward.
The hotline, which recently came under new management, has long faced criticism from attorneys general across the country for delays in forwarding reports of suspected trafficking to law enforcement. State leaders have also raised concerns about the hotline’s failure to share third-party tips with local authorities in a timely manner.
“For more than three years, state attorneys general have repeatedly urged the National Human Trafficking Hotline to send third-party tips of human trafficking to law enforcement,” Fitch and Jennings said in the statement. “We ask our residents who see something to say something because sometimes that simple act of compassion and vigilance can be the difference between life and death for a victim of trafficking.”
The hotline is now being administered by Compass Connections, a Texas-based nonprofit that provides services to vulnerable youth. The transition follows a review by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“We appreciate the thorough review that the Department of Health and Human Services undertook in making this new award, and we are committed to working with Compass Connections to ensure a strong partnership between the hotline and state attorneys general,” the statement read.
Fitch and Jennings noted that more than 40 attorneys general from across the political spectrum and from every region of the country had united behind calls for reform.
“The fight to eradicate human trafficking requires all of us working together,” they said. “We look forward to this new partnership with Compass Connections and to a new and improved National Human Trafficking Hotline.”
