Arkansas attorney general announces $100,000 human trafficking grant
Attorney General Tim Griffin's office has received a $100,000 grant to combat human trafficking in Arkansas, he announced Thursday.
Griffin secured the grant while attending a bipartisan attorney general conference in Rome and Vatican City that was organized by the Attorney General Alliance and focused on fighting human trafficking worldwide, according to a press release from the AG's office.
'We are the most effective in our fight against international human trafficking right here in Arkansas when we are maximizing relationships, sharing information and learning best practices,' Griffin said.
During the trip, which was 'at no cost to taxpayers,' Griffin said he met with experts who specialize in 'illicit massage parlors' and invited some of them to conduct trainings and share insights in Arkansas.
Arkansas police announce human trafficking resource in line with governor's legislative goals
In January 2023, Griffin announced the creation of a statewide group to combat human trafficking called Statewide Tactical Operations Partnership (STOP) that was to be composed of representatives from federal, state and local law enforcement.
More recently, Griffin announced in January that four suspected human trafficking perpetrators were taken into custody following a statewide raid called 'Operation Obscured Vision.' The initiative focused on a dozen 'illicit massage parlors' in Jonesboro, Russellville, Hot Springs, Rogers, Harrison and a Little Rock hotel. Officials identified 17 purported trafficking victims who were 29-65 years old, and 16 accepted services from medical staff and advocacy groups that partnered with the operation, Griffin said.
Also in January, just days after the governor cited public safety as one of her priorities for the 2025 legislative session, Arkansas State Police announced a new website that provides human trafficking victims with county-level resources.
Legislators approved a number of laws related to human trafficking during the legislative session that adjourned Monday, including one that would require information about the National Human Trafficking Hotline to be posted in a nail salon or massage business licensed by the Arkansas Department of Health.
Other new laws create enhanced penalties for recruiting trafficked people from certain places, and require those convicted of violating the Human Trafficking Act of 2013 to pay mandatory restitution to victims, among other things.
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It targets organized systems of commercial exploitation through force, fraud or coercion, and it typically involves traffickers who control nearly every aspect of a victim's life: housing, transportation, identification, finances and the ability to leave. That's not what the Combs case showed. The women involved reported trauma and coercion, but they retained housing, communication, financial resources and career opportunities. They were not legally or physically confined. There was no evidence of document confiscation, restriction of movement or the kind of isolation commonly seen in trafficking cases prosecuted under the TVPA. And that's not a loophole – it's the law doing what it's supposed to do by drawing difficult but necessary lines between different forms of harm. Opinion: Cassie's Diddy trial testimony shows sexual assault survivors how to take power back As one of the nation's preeminent human trafficking expert witnesses, I am familiar with those lines. 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That means extending statutes of limitations for sexual assault and abuse, modernizing domestic violence laws and creating better tools for prosecuting coercive control, even when it doesn't involve physical captivity. Legal scholars and victim advocates have long warned that when we dilute the meaning of 'trafficking,' we hurt the very people trafficking laws were built to protect. If courts begin to see every form of abuse as trafficking, they may become more skeptical. Juries may get confused. Judges may raise the bar for what qualifies. And real survivors – runaway teens, undocumented workers, women trafficked across borders – may find themselves disbelieved or deprioritized. Meanwhile, limited resources – prosecutors, shelters, outreach workers – get pulled into celebrity trials and away from the vulnerable, invisible populations who need them most. We survived sex trafficking. Don't protect men who exploit women like us. | Opinion Survivors still deserve justice The women who came forward against Combs showed immense courage. Their pain is real. Their voices mattered. The guilty verdicts under the Mann Act and prostitution statutes is not symbolic – they are legal affirmations that crimes were committed. But justice is not just about naming abuse. It's about naming it accurately. Trafficking and intimate partner violence are not interchangeable – and pretending they are helps no one. If we're angry that the law didn't do more to hold Combs accountable, that anger is justified. But the answer is not to misapply trafficking law. The answer is to make sure abuse laws are strong enough – long enough, clear enough and modern enough – to capture the harm as it actually happened. Justice requires accountability. But it also requires precision. When we blur the legal lines, we confuse the public, mislead future juries and risk weakening the very laws survivors depend on. Let's not call everything trafficking just because it's the only viable legal tool left. Let's fix the toolbox. Because justice requires truth. And truth requires legal clarity. Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco holds a Ph.D. in criminology, law and society and serves as a human trafficking expert witness in criminal and civil court. Her first book "Hidden in Plain Sight: America's Slaves of the New Millennium" is used to train law enforcement on human trafficking investigations.
