Task force receives grant in fight against human trafficking

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – A new grant given to the Tri-County Human Trafficking Task Force will be an asset in the fight against human trafficking across the Lowcountry.

“The Tri-county Human Trafficking Task Force is honored to be awarded $7 million over the next five years by the Howard G Buffett Foundation,” said Lauren Knapp during an announcement held in Summerville’s Hutchinson Square on Thursday morning.

This money will fund two full-time State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) trafficking investigators, a full-time victim advocate, two prosecutors, two paralegals, and two prosecutorial investigators at the Ninth and First Judicial Circuits.

These agencies are increasing their tools to fight human trafficking.

“We just on-boarded our first electronics detection canine last week – K9 Gripple … And just to give you an idea, that dog just came on board with us last week. It was donated by Defenders for Children and what that dog does is actually seek out the odor of memory cards,” said Chief Doug Wright with Summerville Police Department.

He went on to explain, “This dog aided a local agency in Berkeley County yesterday with a search warrant for evidence for Internet Against Crime with Infant Children. And these devices are so tiny, they’re hard to be seen or found because they can be hidden in anything. Detectives actually, on the hand search, missed the devices. Gripple came in behind them and free air scented the location and located two pieces of critical evidence that is going to help prosecute and bring that person to justice.”

The Howard G. Buffett Foundation is making the donation. Howard is the son of investor Warren Buffett. 

“Without a robust criminal justice response, human trafficking will remain a low-risk, high-profit activity for criminals,” said Brooke Burris of the Tri-County Human Trafficking Task Force.

The grant officially started on October 1st. They believe all these law enforcement positions should be in place by February.