AR Briefly

New group forming to combat human trafficking in Arkansas

By: Sonny Albarado - October 16, 2023 5:56 pm

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin says he’s creating a statewide group to combat human trafficking in Arkansas.

The group will be called the Statewide Tactical Operations Partnership (STOP) and will be composed of representatives from federal, state and local law enforcement, Griffin said Monday as his office launched a two-day conference on human trafficking in Little Rock.

“This effort will provide a structure for collaboration and cooperation among key law enforcement agencies, so that we can better address the problem,” he said in a statement.

The Human Trafficking Summit at the Statehouse Convention Center is expected to draw 1,500 people for sessions on how to recognize signs of human trafficking, hearing from experts and building connections “so that we can have a more intentional and cohesive approach,” Griffin’s statement said.

Human trafficking is not just a big-city or international issue, the attorney general said. It affects large and small communities, including Arkansas, he added.

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Sonny Albarado

In his 50-year career, Sonny Albarado has been an investigations editor, a business editor, a city editor, an environmental reporter and a government reporter at newspapers in Arkansas, Tennessee and Louisiana. He retired from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 2020 after serving as projects editor for 12 ½ years and returned to professional journalism in 2022 to lead the Arkansas Advocate. He is a former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists and a current member of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.