Fighting human trafficking: Pensacola nurses, doctors learn to spot signs of abuse

The average demographic of a person first entering into prostitution in the U.S. is female, aged 13-15.

When Brad Dennis gives this statistic, he is always very deliberate in saying these children are prostituted, not prostitutes.

"Prostitute constitutes a choice," Dennis said. "Prostituted means that choice is taken away."

An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked in the U.S. every year, and Florida is the No. 3 trafficking destination in the country, according to the Florida Department of Health. 

More:Workshop teaches you to spot the signs of human trafficking

As national search director for the KlaasKIDS Foundation's Search Center for Missing and Trafficked Children, Dennis has more than 28 years of experience in the search and rescue field, and he has managed search efforts for more than 300 missing or abducted children in the U.S.

On Thursday morning, he gave a presentation to Baptist Health Care workers about recognizing the signs of human trafficking and commercial sex exploitation.

Dennis said emergency rooms, clinics and hospitals are among the few places where human trafficking victims will surface publicly while still under the control of their trafficker. Those few minutes when a nurse can interact with a victim away from their trafficker — and ask them questions, or observe their injuries and their behavior — are the rare opportunities that good people have to intervene.

"It's important to be able to spot the signs, because they are not going to self-identify to you," Dennis told the group.

Dennis said most people's only familiarity with human trafficking comes through movies and television, where they see dramatic images of people being held against their will in chains or duct tape.

"I have pulled kids out of dog kennels, cut them off of beds where they were tied up, but the majority of them don’t look like that," Dennis explained. "They look like you and me."

In a 90-minute presentation, Dennis showed photos of some of the children who had been exploited — some who had been recovered, some who had been identified and disappeared back into "the life" and some who hadn't survived into adulthood.

Most looked like ordinary kids, who you would never think about twice unless you saw the bruises and cigarette burns under their clothes. Or the "brands" — tattoos like "daddy's girl" on their necks and chests — that identified them as someone else's property. 

He said no matter how badly these trafficking victims are treated, they will almost never go looking for outside help because of the "trauma bond" between them and their trafficker.

Dennis said traffickers typically "groom" their victims through severe emotional, physical and sexual abuse. He said most victims are not only afraid to leave their abuser, but they are also full of immobilizing feelings of shame, self-blame and hopelessness.

"Kids get beaten every single day, they get raped every single night and they will still never leave their predator," Dennis said.

Dennis stressed that human trafficking isn't just a big city issue, and it was happening right here in Pensacola, just like it is in South Beach. He noted that 2,200 children enter the sex trade every day — many of them runaways or other troubled youth, but not always.

Most middle-aged folks heard cautionary tales from their parents about the stranger in the "white van" who drove around neighborhoods abducting children.

Holding up a cellphone, Dennis noted that social media is this generation's "white van."

"The amount of information (children) are putting out there produces so much more data and so much more information for the predator to work with," Dennis said. "It makes it a whole lot easier for me to begin to groom someone if I already know all about them, and I know all about them because their lives are on open to display to me on Snapchat and on Facebook and on Instagram."

Social media gives potential traffickers a window to peer into a child's interests, their insecurities, their family lives, their schedules. Traffickers have a knack for identifying children who are vulnerable and figuring out what will entice them.

They could be wanting for company, for belonging, for attention, for affection, for drugs, for sex, for anything and everything else. 

"Once you tell me what you need and I begin to give that to you, I have you. Period," Dennis said.

He said recruitment happens everywhere, and some of those arrested throughout the country for human trafficking include a high school football coach, a pastor and even a homicide detective.

Still, "These people can be defeated. They can be defeated by really awesome nurses," Dennis said.

Dennis urged everyone to be more attentive, not to silo themselves off and not to make the easy choice of ignoring the little red flags that tell you something is wrong.

"If you're honest, you can probably sit back and look at some of those indications and say, 'I remember a case' (where I could have done more)" he said.

Dennis urged anyone who suspects they may have seen signs of trafficking or abuse to call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline at 888-373-7888, or the Florida Child Abuse hotline at 800-962-2873.

Kevin Robinson can be reached at krobinson4@pnj.com and 850-435-8527.