FHWorld20: Recognizing Signs of Human Trafficking

In what was easily the most emotionally arresting session of Firehouse World in Las Vegas, Rodney Daniels told a sad tale of how his daughter vanishing without a trace eventually pushed him to learn about and teach first responders the warning signs related to human trafficking.

Daniels, a retired assistant fire chief with the U.S. Department of Defense, was friendly and humorous at times to balance the overall somber tone he took when talking about his daughter Tiffany Heaven Daniels, who was 25 years old when she was last seen on Aug. 12, 2013.

"She left work on a Monday and was never seen again," Daniels said, telling attendees that he and his family entertained every conceivable possibility of what happened to her before the former chief learned about the strong potential for her to have been a victim of human trafficking.

"I thought to myself, that doesn't happen here. This isn't a third-world country," he said. "And, boy, did I get an education."

The powerless feeling Daniels and his entire family felt in the immediate aftermath of Tiffany's disappearance led the chief to ask two simple questions: "What do you do?" and "Who do you call?"

With no tangible help or concrete answers coming, Daniels immersed himself in learning about all aspects of human trafficking and dedicated himself to instructing first responders on recognizing the signs of this crime during a potential response so that they may be able to save someone and return them to their family.

The numbers are quite staggering to those who are only mildly familiar with this horrific international crime. As of 2017, estimates put human trafficking as a business at around $150 billion with over one million children under 18 exploited per year. About 2,200 children are reported missing each day in the United States, and while many of those cases do not end in tragedy for a wide variety of reasons, 1 in 7 are suspected to be related to human trafficking.

And while over 80 percent of those who are victimized are female, the bondage they wind up being ensnared in does not necessarily have to be sexual in nature, though it often is. Many cases also involve slave labor.

"We have more people in captivity today than ever before," Daniels said after showing a graphic with detailed trafficking courses laid out across the globe from continent to continent. In the U.S., the biggest problem areas are ocean-bordering states with ports of entry like California, Texas and Florida, the latter being the state where Tiffany Daniels went missing.

But the really important statistic and the one which spurred Chief Daniels on his current mission is that 87 percent of those who have been rescued from their bondage have said that at some point during their captivity they had at least one contact with a healthcare professional or a medical first responder.

What responders should look for if they have suspicions during a call are things like nervous body language, deferring to another person's instructions—most likely their captor—and a general distrust of outside authority figures like police or paramedics. Many wonder why those in captivity fail to even try escaping, but the painful truth is that many victims are groomed at a young age and don't possess the emotional intelligence to truly understand the situation they are in.

"The level of abuse is staggering," Daniels said.

Other signs can be physically visible like bruising or needle marks from intravenous drug use, which is typically forced upon the victim. These signs can also be related to other circumstances, so responders do need to be very careful in their approach to these encounters.

In a gut-wrenching closing to the session, Daniels simply thanked the attendees for listening to his story and said that his new mission has helped him cope with a devastating loss that led to a PTSD diagnosis.

"When I go out and do this it makes me feel better," he said, receiving a warm round of applause and a few hugs when the session ended.

To learn more about Tiffany Daniels and the ongoing search to discover what happened to her, visit www.facebook.com/findtiffany.

If you or anyone you know suspects someone is a victim of human trafficking, please call 1-866-347-2423 to report it.