Seeing What Others Don’t:  How the Fire and Emergency Medical Services can be Trained to Identify Human Trafficking

Instructors:  Division Chief Heather Marques and Benjamin Thomas Greer, J.D., M.A., Emergency Management Instructor, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES)  
The American Fire and Emergency Medical Services sit at a critical juncture of public health, public security, and public trust. As community based first responders, they have unique access to environments which would be otherwise inaccessible to law enforcement or social services.  All available data indicates many of our communities have a significant human trafficking problem; one that is targeting and exploiting the most vulnerable among us. Studies show firefighters and paramedics are likely to unknowingly interact with victims/survivors of trafficking and or be exposed to trafficking related suspicious activity. By properly training and integrating Fire/EMS personnel in the national antitrafficking response structure we will significantly increase our ability to identify human trafficking related suspicious behavior, victims of exploitation thus hold the perpetrators accountable for their criminal actions.   This class will prepare agencies for responding to Assembly Bill 2130, requiring new EMTs and paramedics to undergo mandatory human trafficking awareness training, and create a pathway for training first responders statewide in intervention.