Michigan police keep close eye on I-75 for human trafficking - 13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

Toledo is the third largest "recruiting city" for human trafficking in the U.S.

Authorities, including the Michigan State Police, are trying to keep a close eye on I-75 in the Toledo area for victims. 

13abc rode along with a trooper to several areas along I-75 just north of Toledo where they've arrests in prostitution and human trafficking. 

Troopers look for signs of human trafficking on every shift. They frequent places they've made arrests before. 

"Through the sixteen years I've been here, where we've experienced and made arrests for people trafficking humans," said Trooper James Jarrett. 

The first stop is the northbound rest area on I-75. 

"This was recently rebuilt in the last few years. We'd run into problems with prostitutes coming out here," Jarrett said. 

When troopers arrest prostitutes, in many cases the handler in hear by. 

"That is the case," Jarrett said. "It's usually just a matter of arresting them. Locating them, being able to handle and have enough people to make the arrest."

Often times victims who are forced into human trafficking are too scared to give the names of their handlers. 

"When you're forced into something, you're a victim," Tpr. Jarrett said. "Sometimes that victimization continues with the pimp or handler supplying them drugs or threatening them with violence."

Tpr. Jarrett said truck stops can pose a problem for police if management isn't cooperative. 

"The management with this truck stop does everything they can to try and combat it," he said. 

Trooper tell 13abc that they get tips about possible trafficking of people and drugs at an apartment in south Monroe. 

It's not just the truck stops, the rest stops or the suspicious apartments... it's the Internet, too. 

"Some officers are tech-savvy and some aren't," said Lt. Tony Cuevas. "We have to utilize the tech-savvyer ones at times to help facilitate the older officers understanding the information that's being provided by social media."

Police said the Internet has opened up a new playground for predators.

"The Internet has made our job just phenomenally harder," Tpr. Jarrett said. "When parents saw some creepy guy talking to their kid they could just intervene, but now they just don't know. You don't know who the kids are talking to."