In Your Own Backyard
Chief Deborah Faulkner stepped up to the microphones of a small news conference her department had called just 45 minutes earlier. Her sharp dress blues offered a stark contrast from the nondescript brick office-space she stood before.
“Franklin is a special place.”
She’s right. The town just 14 miles south of Nashville has a rich history dating back to 1799. Surviving a bloody Civil War battle, the town prides itself on beautiful aesthetics. Main Street is painted with shops, restaurants, and the neon marquee of the Franklin Theatre. In a word, it’s quaint.
This backdrop has attracted nearly 70 thousand residents. Major corporations have relocated headquarters here, taking advantage of a high quality of life for their employees. With its small-town charm and reputation for affluence, it’s no big shock that Franklin boasts one of the lowest crime rates in the state.
Yet on this day, Chief Faulkner stood before members of the press announcing raids on two businesses and four apartments related to prostitution. Police executed search warrants at the Oriental Massage Center and the Capital Chinese Foot Spa Massage in the culmination of over a year’s work investigating the businesses’ activities.
The department’s investigation included partners not typically associated with operations in this community: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Homeland Security. Another group joining the ranks seemed out of place with the others. End Slavery Tennessee’s mission focuses on systematically eradicating human trafficking and sex slavery in the state.
End Slavery’s prominent mention in the list of involved agencies cast the specter of sex trafficking in this picturesque community. Studies show that human trafficking is a growing problem in the state. Of Tennessee’s 95 counties, 85 of them have reported at least 1 case of human trafficking.
In Franklin?
When Chief Faulkner fielded a question by a member of the press about sex trafficking, Sergeant Charles Warner, the department’s Public Information Officer, quickly jumped in.
“We’ve never said that. We’ve never talked about sex trafficking,” Warner said.
Chief Faulkner further clarified the organization’s evolvement. “It’s our understanding from our research, and talking with other law enforcement agencies across the United States, that where you have this type of activity, you could also have people who are held against their will,” the Chief said. “We wanted to make it available to them, if in fact we did discover this.”
Ending Slavery
Bucky Elliott is a community leader for End Slavery TN in Spring Hill, Franklin’s neighbor to the south. His red hair and goatee are the first things you notice, but his enthusiasm for End Slavery’s work soon overshadows them. He has worked with the organization for nearly five years.
Elliott explained that the law sets a high threshold for a prostitution case to become a trafficking case. If the victim is an adult, law enforcement must prove she was forced, coerced, or deceived by the alleged trafficker.
Traffickers have rigged the game against victims. They have mastered the art of manipulating their victims to maintain control. Tracey Brooks, an Intelligence Analyst with the TBI, says that many of the victims may not even view themselves as a victim.
“That is the way they have been trained,” Brooks said. “A lot of girls that we have talked to that are 16, 17 years old, they don’t view themselves as being used by somebody to make money. Even though they don’t get to keep any of the money and they are not allowed to leave.”
When a minor is involved in prostitution activities, the law automatically classifies the crime as trafficking. Even so, Elliott sees the reported cases as “just the tip of the iceberg.”
“Usually if it is a pimp situation, they’ve got three, four, five girls in their stable,” Elliott said. “So, it’s only really representing the fact that it is happening, it’s not really quantitative of how much.”
End Slavery TN fights with a multifaceted approach: Training and educating the community, aiding victims, and preventing future cases of trafficking. While no aspect of the fight is easy, raising awareness in the suburbs of Nashville has its own set of challenges. “It’s still taboo,” Elliott said. “It’s just not a comfortable topic to talk about.” The “safe” communities must see that it isn’t just overseas or in seedy downtown hotels. Sex trafficking is in the backyard.
Tracey Brooks says the TBI also focuses on community education efforts. Talking to state agencies, law enforcement, church groups, and nonprofits are all a part of getting the community to “see it for what it is, and not what they think it is.”
The End of the Day
The evening of the Franklin raids, the police department issued another press release.
“5 rescued from human trafficking; 7 arrested on multiple charges following massage parlor raids in Franklin,” read the headline in bold blue text. Successful police work and observant citizens offered freedom to 5 victims of a horrific crime in a family community.
Even though the police were careful in the morning, Bucky Elliott had a hunch the Police knew what they were dealing with when executing the search warrants.
The Capital Chinese Foot Spa Massage was behind an apartment complex and directly across the street from a public high school. Oriental Massage Center backed up to the fence line of a single-family home. A neighboring business politely declined to comment; only saying “we knew nothing about it.”
Not long after the press release was sent, a light snow fell on the city. The clean, white dusting offers the city a fresh start, and for a few Franklin residents, “not in my backyard” is true—at least for now.