JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri House of Representatives wasted no time Wednesday, passing the first bill of the session after just three minutes of debate.
Rep. Patricia Pike’s, R-Adrian, bill aims at curbing human trafficking in the state by requiring the display of a poster that provides information and resources for victims.
“We are behind the game in determining that this is a really big issue,” Rep. Mike Butler, D-St. Louis, said. “This is a good step forward.”
Missouri ranks in the top 20 of states in human trafficking, or “modern-day slavery” as it was referred to several times in previous debate. Since 2007, the National Human Trafficking Hotline has received nearly 2,000 reports of human trafficking cases in the state and it has identified as many as 1,000 possible victims in Missouri.
“It has been shown that when victims use hotline numbers they have a better chance of being rescued,” Pike said. The hotline number would be displayed on the poster.
House Bill 1246 would require various establishments, specified in the bill, to display a poster that provides information regarding human trafficking, including what it is and what resources victims have for getting help, in a conspicuous place near the front of the establishment, starting March 1, 2019. The Department of Public Safety will create the poster before January 1, 2019, and make it available for print on the department’s website.
No one spoke in opposition to bill and it passed with ease. The bill is now in the Senate, the same place it stalled last year.
Alisha Shurr was a reporter for The Missouri Times and The Missouri Times Magazine. She joined The Missouri Times in January 2018 after working as a copy editor for her hometown newspaper in Southern Oregon. Alisha is a graduate of Kansas State University.
