Lancaster County DA weighs in on 1st year of human trafficking task force

• Scott LaMar
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  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

Human Trafficking. Torn pieces of paper with the words Human Trafficking. Concept Image. Black and White. Closeup.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

The Human Trafficking Task Force in Lancaster County made 30 arrests in its first year. A segment of the people arrested were men who were seeking sex, including those who thought they were making arrangements to have sex with young girls as young as 13. But there were alleged traffickers charged with crimes too.

The incidents of human trafficking for sex or labor, but most often for sex, vary wildly from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. The states where trafficking occurs most often are California, Florida and New York.

But it happens everywhere, including here in south central Pennsylvania, as Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams explained on The Spark Wednesday, “Really anywhere that you have these major highways and hotels next to these major highways, you’re going to have an issue with human trafficking. And that’s evidenced by the fact that, you know, we made 30 arrests this past year. Now, not all of them are specifically on the Title 18 crimes involving human trafficking. But what the arrests show is that there’s a demand for these services here in Lancaster County. And so long as that demand exists, then the traffickers are going to fill that demand with victims. And sometimes and this does happen, it can be minors. So, it’s so important that we have this task force and we’re out there looking for this because people do need to understand that it does exist.”

Adams indicated she was surprised at the results of the task force’s first year,”I am still taken aback when I see that we arrested nine people in three separate investigations for specifically searching out a minor to engage in sexual activity. And that’s shocking. But but it’s there. So it was good to see that we’re making these arrests. And we also made progress on two other goals of the task force and that it be victim centered. So we have some really trained victim advocates on board now that can help a victim when they are first rescued with services that they need. And we made some advancements to with training as well.”

Adams was asked what the task force learned in their first year,”To be honest, it was a successful first year. And and, you know, I think we need to advocate for ourselves a little bit more. As far as, you know, any any time the state or federal agencies can have additional resources to provide us, that would be very valuable.”