WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — A forum is being held Tuesday night to educate the Wausau community about sex trafficking.
The event is being hosted by both The Women’s Community and the Wausau Police Department at Northcentral Technical College. The forum will answer questions about human trafficking and sex trafficking in the Wausau area, including how cases are handled by various community groups.
Officer Sarah D’Acquisto is assigned to the Victim’s Resource Unit with the Wausau Police Department and says the forum will answer questions that came from an online survey shared on Facebook with residents.
“We generated a survey that was posted on the Wausau Police Department’s Facebook page. As well as the Women’s Community Facebook page to get a general understanding of the public’s perception when it comes to sex trafficking, human trafficking. And with those types of responses, it’s helping us gear this forum to answering those questions.”
While the specific questions for the forum won’t be known until Tuesday night. D’Acquisto expects them to center around how trafficking cases are handled and what resources are in place for spotting and stopping trafficking.
When asked how much of an issue trafficking is in the Wausau area, D’Acquisto explained its hard to figure out how many are occurring because most cases aren’t reported correctly. “So the case might come across my desk as prostitution.
“And we might investigate it with the underlying gut feeling that it’s sex trafficking. But we may never get all of the ducks in a row to prove that that’s sex trafficking. Or it might be presented as domestic violence. “
The event is being held as part of Human Trafficking Awareness month. The forum begins at 6 p.m. and will last until 8 in the conference room of the Center for Health Sciences building at NTC.
The panel for the forum will include Officer D’Acquisto, Advocate Brenda Bayer from The Women’s Community, a Social Worker from Marathon County Social Services, a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner from St. Clare’s Hospital, ADA from the Marathon County District Attorney’s Office, and a Forensic Interviewer from the Children’s Advocacy Center.
The event is free and open to the public, but registration is preferred. You can register for the event here. D’Acquisto says if someone wants to learn more about how to spot human trafficking can contact her or The Women’s Community.
