Photo by Jacob Cole
Homewood City Council
Homewood Mayor Scott McBrayer signed a proclamation making the city a Human TraffickingFree Zone at the Jan. 13 City Council meeting.
The Homewood City Council and Mayor Scott McBrayer approved and signed a proclamation at the Jan. 13 council meeting to help combat human trafficking in the area.
The proclamation also names January as National Human Trafficking Awareness Month in the city. Ward 5 councilor Jennifer Andress and Ward 3 councilor Patrick McClusky brought the issue to the council.
McClusky said the proclamation, which makes the city a "Human TraffickingFree Zone," is all about education.
“The program is really more of an educational thing,” he said. “Everybody from the city, the teachers and everyone else [will participate]. It’s just kind of an awareness and what to look for when it comes to trafficking victims and things like that."
Homewood became the latest over the mountain community to sign an anti-human trafficking proclamation. Vestavia Hills put pen to paper in November, and Mountain Brook followed in December.
The Human TraffickingFree Zone initiative is a national program of the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking, Child Trafficking Solutions Project and Jefferson County Family Court.
The Children’s Policy Council started the CTSP in 2016 in response to the passage of Alabama's Safe Harbor Act, created by former State Rep. Jack Williams from Vestavia Hills. The project unites stakeholders from across the state and nation who want to end human trafficking.
According to a CTSP press release, cities who join the initiative must ensure all city staff receive human trafficking training and adopt a zero-tolerance policy regarding purchasing sex at work. Homewood City Schools employees also will receive training within the next month.
McClusky said human trafficking is a problem the city’s police department has dealt with before, but the proclamation casts a wider net ahead of the 2021 World Games.
Birmingham and other local municipalities are preparing for the influx of trafficking victims the event is expected to draw.
“I wanted to make sure everyone understood that our police department has been dealing with this for quite some time,” McClusky said. “We have the statistics where we are actually saving kids off the street already, but the proclamation is going to go a long way in helping further educate everybody that’s not necessarily in the public safety sector to be aware of what the surroundings are and what people are looking for, for human trafficking purposes.”
According to Homewood's proclamation, the Homewood Police Department in conjunction with the FBI made more than 60 prostitution arrests during multiple undercover operations in 2019. Those arrests led to the rescue of three human trafficking victims and identification of three of the area's largest human traffickers.
Another joint operation between Homewood and the FBI, Operation Independence Day 2019, led to 15 arrests and the rescue of one victim.
Michelle Bearman-Wolnek, co-founder and executive director of the Heart Gallery, said she is happy to see the Homewood City Council approve this proclamation. The Heart Gallery helps children in foster care find permanent homes.
“I just want to say thank you for recognizing the importance of trying to end human trafficking,” Bearman-Wolnek said. “We work with children who are living here in foster care, and a large percentage of these children are products of human trafficking. This is very important to my heart and our community.”
McBrayer thanked the council for approving and allowing this proclamation to go through without any problems.
“The council, from the very inception of this, has certainly supported this without question,” he said.
The council will hold its next meeting Jan. 27.
