Human Trafficking from Sioux Falls to Rapid City - Call To Freedom

This is Forum. I'm John Michaels Public Affairs Radio Director since 1977, and I want to... Give a shout out to Brian at the Si Johnson VA Center and also Chuck Poppin at Channel 26 who listened to this program every Sunday morning. Serious subject again today. Education and communication is important on human trafficking in South Dakota and Sioux Falls in this area here. Becky Rasmussen, president and CEO of Call to Freedom. And we're talking also to Jesse McPherson, outreach coordinator in Rapid City. Jesse, you're kind of new to the job. Yes, I am. I started in December, end of December, actually, here in Rapid City. Well, I'm glad that we're concluding Rapid City because there's so much that goes on with the reservations. We'll kind of touch you that a little bit. Yesterday, I mentioned I watched the movie Traffic. It's with a C, with a K, not a C, T-R-A-F-M-I-C-K, and it scared the H-R-A-R-A-R-A-R-E-E-C-K. Is that the segment where the reporter goes on site? Yes. It's a reporter, but it's also based on true events. And, you know, right now I can't look at a semi-without thinking, is that the human traffic. I can't look at... even a gas station because that's part of it. The sheriff was in on it. So, you know, and I've talked to Sheriff Milstead and he said, how do you deal with a cartel or corporation that's in 45 countries? The movie said it's what, one and a half billion dollar? It's more than drugs. It's one of the fastest growing criminal activities in the nation. And it's one of the less talked about because they're really hard to identify. And that's why education and promotion and talking about what does this look like. I don't know if Hollywood has always done a favor to us as far as some of the movies like taken that make it look like kidnapping. We don't experience cases. Always like that, I would say the majority of the cases that Calder Freedom Sees, they know their perpetrator. built a relationship with their perpetrator. One in five that walk through the doors of call to freedom are actually trafficked by a family or a member of their family. And those are cases that are really hard to identify. You also talked about the cartel and some of those organized fronts and that we have worked cases in that regard in South Dakota as well. And those are hidden within our communities. I think a lot of people think, gosh, I'm in rural South Dakota and this doesn't happen, but that's not the reality. A lot of legal activity likes to thrive in small communities because we don't talk about it or we educate it on it as well. Well, we've had to evict drug dealers out of our apartment complex. I feel that I've looked in the eye of a cartel staring me down. Yeah. It's in Sioux Falls. It's in South Dakota. Jesse, you're...

A little bit different in Rapid City in that you have a lot of the Native American. The reservations touch Rapid City quite a bit in the courts in that. There is actually a state representative that is with the murdered and missing Native American. That's not the title. Murdered and missing indigenous. Because there's so many. And I've talked to other people, too, in biker gangs. They say, yeah, we go up through the reservations on the way to Sturgis. And we've talked to people that said they've sold babies. They pick up people on their way. And I'm talking about some of the major, you know, national gangs that Sturgis is a part about. Now, a lot of it is very good and all about motorcycles. And my uncle used to be the Indian dealership back in the 30s. And, you know, the Sturgis rally was a lot different back then. But now, Becky, I think you were mentioning, it's almost like a quarter of a million people. Yeah, I mean, I don't think we have correct stats because it's one of those very difficult illegal activities to identify. What we can speak to is what Call to Freedom has seen. Since last year, we've seen a 39% increase over new referrals into our office just from last year into this year already. And that just tells me that this education piece is really important in the sense that a lot of victims of this crime are told you'll never be believed and sometimes their victimization is so horrific that they don't even believe what's happened or nobody will believe what they're going to tell us and that is the biggest thing is that we need to believe we need to make space for these conversations we need to educate our community on allowing those that are impacted by human trafficking to have space safe spaces to disclose what happened to them and to be believed Well, Becky, you've been with us on this program since the last, he started 10 years ago. But just the fact that you're now a staff of 28, I believe. Yeah, we'll be at 30, so we're in the process of hiring. Jesse and her team out in Rapid, she's two and a half right now. And you can talk a little bit about that, Jesse. And then here was a survivor outreach center as well as Marissa's house. Marissa's house houses up to 12 individual women and their children. One of the things that we saw when we started Marissa's house in October of 2016 is the women had this deep desire to be reunified with their children. And they would do the program. for their children, but they had a hard time doing it for themselves. And so we wanted to create a home that allowed them to let their deepest desires to come true and their deepest hope is to be reunified with their kids in a safe environment where they can be supported through their trauma as well as learning to be a parent again. And that's been probably for a lot of them years. And they never had good examples of what that look like. So we're able to do that and reunify families. And it's probably one of the greatest gifts

that we get to do as well as work with survivors. And Jesse, you want to talk a little bit about the Rapid City office and what you're doing? Yeah, absolutely. So as you mentioned, we are, you know, operating as two and a half here. We have a survivor engagement prevention specialist here in Rapid City. And together, we've been educating the community for awareness and outreach, providing that training. partnering with law enforcement responders here in the hills, and then, of course, providing that comprehensive services for survivors of human trafficking. We are seeing some survivors from care campus. That is an addiction treatment center here across the street at one heart that we are getting referrals from. Everybody needs that support, and that's what we're doing here. We're here, you know, getting all the survivors, all the information and services that they are needing. Jesse, are you looking to hire some people? Absolutely. We love to expand. What are you looking for in the people that you hire? Becky, do you want to answer that one? We have a diverse group of specialized case managers that work really hands-on in different capacities. And so Jesse and the team out in Rapid, as you hear, we have two individuals who have lived experience on staff. That's really important to us to have a survivor-informed program. So that's Rapid and Sioux Falls. As well as in Sioux Falls, we have a bilingual case manager who works in the Spanish-speaking communities really with more male populations than female populations, believe it. or not with a labor trafficking piece. And then we have a reentry case manager who goes into the prisons and the jails. And you think, gosh, why is a woman who is being trafficked in the prisoner jails? And, you know, some of those times those individuals are used for forced criminality or to maybe get a drug possession. And sometimes those women just want safety and they go into the prison because they can get safely out of their situation. So there's a variety of reasons why we go into the prisons and the jails. jails as well as we have youth case managers she has right now. Last year we served about 100 individuals that were just zero to 24 years old. That is probably the fastest growing as well as the reentry that we're seeing some of those survivors come out of. And then also in regards to just outreach and then the Marissa's house as well. So we have a variety of different case managers who do have specialized gifts that they bring to the table. And our whole goal as a team is to get to every person impacted by human trafficking and commercial service. actual exploitation. Becky, I ask you this every time. What is the average life expectancy of a...

someone that's in human trafficking right now? Yeah, there's some stats on that. I don't know how accurate they are, but, you know, the stats say nine years, which is pretty scary. We have seen, I've seen somebody walks through the doors who have been trafficked for over 50 years of her life. She was trafficked at age nine, walked through the doors, obviously when she was near her 60s, and, you know, I've worked with people who have been trafficked for three months of their life. And so, Trauma has no boundaries or borders with the woman who had walked through the doors who had been trafficked for 50 years of her life. When they had actually sex trafficked her to the point where they couldn't use her in that capacity anymore, they began to labor traffic her and then use her social security as LLCs and organized fronts as well. So, you know, they will sell a human being over and over again to make a profit. And that's a sad part of this business. It's the fastest growing criminal activity in the world. Part of the problem is somebody can get pregnant, but those born into this, you know, they can be born into human trafficking themselves. Yeah, yeah. You know, the coolest thing about Galdor Freedom, we want to make space for the kids that come through the doors. I think everything, we need to make sure that we have safe spaces. for people to come when they're in traumatic situations. And so our Survivor Outreach Center really is being developed. We'll be doing a community campaign next year. We'll do some renovations to our local, our current location here in Sioux Falls, and we'll have showers on site, rest stops, as well as sleeping rooms, clothing room, as well as a play therapy room. And we want the kids to know they have a safe place to go, even if their parents are struggling as well. In a movie traffic, the comment was made, it feels like the 4th of July. I guess that was a cold word. What are some of the other things that are kind of cold words in this? Yeah, I don't know if I know a lot of that. Jesse, you can talk about that, but it varies based on groups and how they communicate, how they... brand potentially brand their victims. So I don't think there's like certain words to look for that I can tell you about. But I can tell you this. There are things to look for as far as if somebody is fearful and dismissive. If they are not speaking on behalf of themselves, if they're in a controlled environment, if they do not have access to their possessions, it could be their personal identification. What traffickers do is they control every aspect of that person's life. And they feel like they have no way out. From what they eat to where they live, what they wear, to their personal identification, they control every aspect of that person's life. So they feel like there's no way out. And so the two things that we have to meet when they walk through the doors of call to freedom is safety and basic needs. And sometimes safety is a perceived threat or as an actual... tracking system. It could be tracking their phone. It could be tracking their car or it could be a perceived threat of one of the family members. And so we really have to ask what does safety look like to that person, find out what is making them feel unsafe and then navigate the next steps for them to safety. And sometimes that's been moving them nine states away. Sometimes South Dakota is not a safe place for those that we serve.

We're seeing more stabbing, shootings, it seems like in Sioux Falls. I think Rapid City is increasing in crime. Jesse and Becky is, you know, a lot of that I would say is over drugs, you know, hijacking cars or whichever. But have you seen some of it actually being related directly to human trafficking? Absolutely. You know, when you talk about drug trafficking, there are a lot of intersections between human trafficking and drugs. One of the... strongest controls that traffickers typically either introduce their victims to or have recruited them because is substance abuse. And when they have an addiction, it's easier to control a person. So you see these organized fronts, you know, selling drugs, but also selling people as well. Jesse, are you seeing a lot of more motorcycles starting to come through Rapid City on the way to Sturgis now? Yes, we also see a lot more this year. I want to kind of go back to those indicators that Becky was speaking about. There's also these branding tattoos that we do see on clients as well as, you know, the substance abuse and the mental health issues of clients. So I just really want to put that out there, that substance abuse has been really big here in Rapid City as well. You've been in this since December. What are some of the things you can relate to? I know he can any names, but what some of the experiences you've had in just the last six months? I guess when it comes to putting out... and connecting survivors to safety and support. That's one of the biggest things out here is the more support that survivors have, the more that they will be open and coming to us and getting the help that they deserve and the freedom that they deserve. In every agency, we have to work together, and it's a community effort. And so that's what we've been doing out here. Jesse, even in the last six months, have you ever had an indication where you've been a little bit fearful? No, no, I have not. I have really good relationships with all the survivors that come across, as well as other agencies. We all work together. It's a community effort. Human trafficking does not have one phase. The problem where a lot of times they go right back to their captors. How do you bridge that? So that's unfortunate. It does happen, unfortunately, and it's just important that the survivor does have information on call to freedom, and they understand who to reach out to. It has to be voluntary, and so we're here whenever they need us. What would you define call to freedom as? You know, we're talking about a lot of things here. There's... 7,000 people move into Sioux Falls every year. We don't know if that's bringing problems or if they're thinking it's safer here or maybe it's not. You know, what is called a freedom if we were to define it?

Yeah, I would say we were established. For me, it was a call. And I was just looking back at numbers. My first interaction with a victim of trafficking was in the Sturgis rally. It was the 75th anniversary. And there were over 759,000 people attending that event. And when we started Calder Freedom, I had met a young girl named Marissa, who we believe was in a trafficking situation. But she never disclosed that to me. She did disclose her name. We did know that she was on the missing list. And so when I started Call to Freedom, the heart of Call to Freedom is that that young girl's story, she didn't have access to services. She didn't have the safety, the basic needs, or the people that knew how to navigate her situation. And so because of that, she was revictimized. And the heart of Call to Freedom is to make sure that every survivor has... every opportunity to get out of their trafficking situation. And that's how Call to Freedom has been developed, is our continuum of care model has been on the journey of survivors. And if we were not at the level of services that we wanted to be, I would always add another component to Call to Freedom's Continuum of Care model, because somebody shouldn't have to retell their story. They shouldn't have to go through systems and continue to tell their story. They need somebody who's going to advocate for them, somebody who's going to come alongside them and be able to get them housing, to get them on disability if that's what they need, or to be able to get... you know, the mental health and the addiction services they need. They don't need to go into every service provider and retell their story. And so call to freedom is here to support survivors of those that are impacted by human trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, how very long they want to work with call to freedom. There isn't a timeline on it. And so people should have those supports in place to be able to successfully navigate to those next steps of healing and hope. increasing to 30. That's a couple, even since the last time we've talked on this program, Becky. Safe, I guess, is what I would put it in one word. Because when it's a one and a half billion dollar industry, when there's almost two million people in human trafficking in America, 21 million globally, they can't feel safe calling. 911 getting. Yeah. There's people in there that they're actually part of the business. Let me give you an example. A family called me, this was last year, and they said our 18-year-old daughter is in a really bad situation. We know that there's been cash apps. We know it looks like high indicators of human trafficking, but she won't leave the situation. And little did they know until nine months later when we got her out of that situation by navigating in a lot of prayer and reporting that they were threatening her niece and nephew that they would kill them. And she was afraid to leave that situation. And so I think people have to realize that one and three that have walked through the doors of call to freedom last year in 2025 had an intimate relationship with their trafficker.

One in five were trafficked by a parent or a guardian. And so there is some of this kidnapping part, but a lot of what we see walking through the doors of Calder Freedom really are people that are building relationships with their victim. The other thing that we've seen in the last 10 years is it used to be in hotels, motels, Airbnbs, and now we've got a whole other avenue that people are getting perpetrated, which is online, and has escalated where one in five minors who experienced online sexual interaction did not disclose their experience to anyone. because of their fear of what their parent would say or their loved ones would say. One and two minors do not disclose their online sexual activity. These perpetrators, as you saw Marty Jackly, our South Dakota Attorney General, just prosecute actually was part of a settlement and signed on with a few other states. And we ended up getting $15 million from roadblocks. And Roadblocks was essentially not safeguarding the conversation with young kids and bad actors online. My grandson, like everybody, plays Roadblocks. But again, for this to exist, there's people in law enforcement, there's people in city, state, federal. government, there's senators that look the other way for this to exist. But yet, I think South Dakota, like you say, Attorney General, Jackie, and the others, we've got a really good thing going in South Dakota, but it's not that way in other places sometimes. Yeah, I mean, you know, there's place people that have power and authority that will misuse that power or authority to their advantage. We've had great experiences here in South Dakota, a U.S. Attorney Ron Parsons, a dear friend, a great advocate for this initiative against human trafficking as well as we've had great relationships with south dakota attorney general marty jackley as well and then here locally um with chief John Thune and i believe we have the same relationships in pennington county as well yep Jesse, the Sturgis rally coming up. In the past, I've interviewed police stings where they actually go out and have lady cops in a sting out there, and that's successful. I see balloons over the interstate sometimes. I kind of wonder if that's not somebody keeping track of traffic on the interstates. What are those balloons doing up there? But the thing, Jesse, is... Sturgis is also a good thing. So people coming through Rapid City, go on with Sturgis, what do you advise them? What to look for?

Just advise everybody to stay safe. If they see something, say something. Contact law enforcement if there is an emergency. And then we also have a human trafficking reporting forum on the DCI website. So once you put your information in there or if you success something, what it does, it goes to the DCI and they're able to investigate and start building a case. So reporting suspicions and helping connect survivors to safety and support is the goal, but also the Sturgis motorcycle rally is a fun time and the community does get together. Just safety is the biggest thing here. It's usually large, you know, just large crowds, whether it's Sturgis, a fair, a festival. I guess the best to the best, Becky, is not to be alone. Have somebody with you. Yeah, I think you need to be aware of your surroundings. Be aware of who you're talking to. Yeah, don't go anywhere alone with anyone you don't know. It's kind of the same thing online. Don't have a conversation and close information to somebody. You know, unfortunately today, I think it's different than when we were young, John. Like it is escalated a little bit on this online piece to... where it has no boundaries or borders, but also, you know, people who are bad actors are very good at manipulation. They're able to find a person with vulnerabilities and they're able to fill that void within that situation. And so don't give a stranger too much information and, yes, stay with friends and, yeah, just be aware of your surroundings. Jesse, again, you've been... kind of, you know, in six months, you've been a lot, but is this kind of a calling for you? It absolutely was. I actually got my background, is in victim services. I do have background information with, working with anti-traffing agencies in Texas I was volunteering for, and then once I obtained my master's, I decided to move back home and, you know, continue the calling. And I've been... reaching out the call of freedom the past five years just to see if there's any opportunities, and then there was automatically, and I applied, and I'm so grateful that I got this position because I pray for this for a very long time. People in the Rapid City area, how do they reach you? They can reach me by my phone number 605-777-3469 or even calling the Call to Freedom intake line 605-759-3565. And where are you located in Meppin?

We are located inside the One Heart building. It's right across the Sheriff's Department and the Pennington County Police Department. So we're right here on 217 Kansas City Street. Well, being next to the Police Department is a good thing. Becky. Where's Calder Freedom in Sioux Falls? Yeah, we just moved into a new location last year in April, so we've been there for one year, which I'm proud to say we're all in one office space, which has not always been the case for Calder Freedom's Journey. But we're at 4501 South Technology Drive. So we're right off Louise and like where the Popeyes is in the Empire Mall. We're in that location. Interesting enough, we were looking for a downtown location because we felt like that's where we should be. And God did not open up that opportunity. And we had to spread our, open our geographical area. But it's interesting now that all the places that we work with are moving by us. So we believe that this is our home. It's a 13,744 square foot facility that, again, we're able to have showers on site, clothing rooms, meet those basic needs as far as sleep and food. So. Please reach out to us. Our phone number is 605-261-1880. If you're looking to get involved, volunteer, or if you want to know more, we actually have an event on Tuesday, September 29th, which is our community breakfast. We usually have a small room of about 1,100 people that come to the event. This year, Marty Jackly will be sharing just on his victory with the roadblock settlement, as well as what he's seeing in South Dakota, as well as we'll have. some big announcements with our new partners of Vera Health, as well as SDN communication. So please go to calderfreedom.org, and you can look under community breakfast, under events, and get signed up. It's free to our community. Jesse and Rapid City, I suppose you're available to, if service clubs want you to come and speak or network with other groups and committees and that type of thing, you're available for that. Yes, absolutely. Okay. Well, Becky, also in Sioux Falls, you're available to go out and I see it a lot of different things, but education and communication is the key. Yeah, and I want to thank you, John. You are so intentional about inviting us every, at least two times a year around Sturgis, but we want to get the word out. We have a very, as you're heard, Jesse, a very passionate team that wants survivors to be heard, but also the community to be a part of the solution. Go to call to freedom.org. and go under request to speaker, and we will make sure to contact you back and get some of our best speakers out to talk to your group. Jesse, if you had a magic wand, you could just wave it. What would you want to wish for? Eliminating sex buyers. And what's your goal for this year? I guess, you know, conduct that outreach and increased visibility of available resources out here on the western side of the state. Are you going to go to Sturgis?

No. We will be available in Sturges for any calls that come in. One of the other things that Jesse's been so great about in the West River is having ambassadors share these pole tabs. And so they're in rest stops, gas stations, visitor bureaus across the state. So if you want to be an ambassador in West River to help with that cause, so we get calls and people identified, please reach out to Jesse. I think there's a hand signal that people can ask for help. You know, if people see it, what is that? Yeah, I'm not a firm believer in those. So I'm not going to give you the answer you want. But because a lot of people are educated, so let's say a survivor or a victim does that hand signal and you don't know what it is. Then they just reached out for help and wasn't successful. And so I just say the best thing to do is just what Jesse said is to report and then reach out to our local authorities. And the local authorities, you're educating them quite a bit too, I think. Yeah, they actually, Mary Beth, who is a human trafficking coordinator, does all the LET trainings, which are the new law enforcement, as well as we've trained Lincoln County, Sioux Falls PD. Whenever they will invite us, we are there. Well, not to scare anybody, but it can scare people. Anytime there's a large group, or like you say downtown where there's a lot of bar activities, that type of thing, these people know what they're doing, and they're very good at it. Yeah, I think, again, just be aware of your surroundings. Use that gut reaction. There's something to it. If something doesn't feel right, follow your gut reaction. And again, you know, don't give too much information to strangers or... have a loan time with them until you really know a person. Well, Jesse McPherson, outreach commissioner in Rapid City, thank you for joining us. Yeah. Okay, and Becky Grasmussen, president's CEO of Colorado Freedom here in Sioux Falls, thank you for being with us on forum. Thank you for having us, John.