TOLEDO, Ohio — The Ohio Human Trafficking Hotline is now open for tips 24/7.
Celia Williamson, executive director of the University of Toledo's Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute, said the new tool will help bring the state closer to catching those behind human trafficking.
"Often human trafficking involves links in a chain and the goal is to remove the entire chain and not just arrest a link in the chain," Williamson said.
People can anonymously report suspicious activity to the hotline — 844-END-OHHT (844-363-5448) — to help law enforcers gather information for investigations.
"Sometimes, people are more apt to not call 911 because they want to maybe stay anonymous, especially if someone's a witness, they may want to call this toll free number and say, 'hey, this is what I saw at this location and need that help'," said Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn.
While the hotline connects directly to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, law enforcement officers recommend it only for non-emergency calls that may not require an immediate response.
"With the human trafficking number, it may not be as time-sensitive," Wasylyshyn said. "A lot of times where it could even be the victim saying, 'hey, I've been, you know, I'm here against my will. We're heading to Chicago, here's the vehicle I'm in, here's the information I'm in."
Wasylyshyn said BCI will then send over that information to local law enforcement such as detectives and task forces.
"(The) Attorney General's Office has all our information and they may say, 'well, this is something we need to get a hold of a detective from the Wood County Sheriff's Office to follow up on this,'" Wasylyshyn said. "They very likely could just call the detective directly and say, 'here's the information we're giving. Can you look into this to see if you can substantiate this?"
Unlike the national human trafficking hotline, however, it will not have additional resources.
Williamson wants to make sure survivors aren't concerned by that, though.
"If people call the tip line looking for services, if they're survivors, then that's going be confusing or maybe that person then gives up or, and we wouldn't want that to happen," Williamson said.