2023 ANNUAL REPORT: Attorney General Alan Wilson speaks about reducing human trafficking in Palmetto State

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — In one year alone, the state of South Carolina reports that 357 cases of human trafficking involved almost 500 potential victims.

Richland County had the highest number of reported incidents.

“In order to properly manage a problem, you must properly measure a problem,” said attorney general Alan Wilson.

Thursday afternoon, Attorney General Alan Wilson presented the 2023 Human Trafficking Task Force Annual Report at the statehouse.

He clarifies that most human traffickers are already known by their victims, either employers or someone even closer to them.

“One thing I need you to know is that in the top five relationships that traffickers have with victims is an intimate partner or family member,” Wilson said. “Sometimes you cannot return a 14 or 15 year old child back to the family where the trafficking occurred.”

More than 90 percent of the cases reported in South Carolina involved minors. 

To help the victims of human trafficking, the attorney general is asking lawmakers for 10 million dollars.

“The state is woefully inadequate in providing transitional houses for minor victims of human trafficking,” he said. “We have one facility in the entire state to serve all of our cases. We intend to ask for that to be addressed in this upcoming  budget. That’s not just coming from the attorney general’s office but the entire task force. 

The crime is also happening statewide.

In South Carolina, 40 of the 46 counties saw cases and suspicious activity can be anonymously reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

“Anytime you see something, you can make an anonymous call to the hotline. You can call local law enforcement,” Wilson said. “I’d rather you over report and it be nothing than under report and a child slips through the cracks.”

The task force aims at increasing awareness of the hotline this year. Last year, the task force launched TraffickProofSC, a statewide initiative educating middle and high school students about the dangers out there. 

“That’s why I do think there is a reduction,” Wilson said. “Education is aiding in my personal opinion. That’s what we’re going to continue to do.”