As thousands of visitors from around the country flock to Denver’s streets this month for one of the nation’s largest livestock shows, experts say there is potential for an increase in commercial sex work.
But the National Western Stock Show, which attracts 700,000 people to the city for two weeks every January, is no different from any other large event hosted in Denver that brings an influx of tourists, Commander Paul Jimenez, who oversees Denver police’s investigations unit, said.
“I think when they see an increase in that population, and then potentially the demand,” Jimenez said, “then they will come to Denver for those reasons and offer the commercial sex services that they provide.”
In the past year, Denver has seen an increase in arrests for prostitution, Jimenez said, but the increase isn’t necessarily caused by the large events hosted in the city.
“It’s more, there’s just individuals that are traveling around and they would have done this in their home jurisdiction,” he said. During interviews, investigators learned that many sex workers were coming from cities across the country, but found no specific reason why Denver would be their next stop.
Last year, the department made 114 arrests related to prostitution and human trafficking, according to department data. That’s compared with 92 cases in 2022.
“The arrest is the last result there,” Jimenez said. “If we can identify an individual that’s actually being trafficked, then in lieu of charges, we will offer them referrals to service providers.”
Denver police work with the FBI, along with other local and state agencies and victim advocates, on the Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force to identify signs of human trafficking and connect victims with resources including transportation, housing, jobs and food.
During the task force’s last cross-country operation, eight juvenile and 19 adult victims of sex trafficking were recovered in Colorado, the FBI announced this summer. Fourteen children were also located, five traffickers were arrested and eight other traffickers were identified for further investigation.
With the potential increase in commercial sex work, there’s a risk for workers to become victims, said Leonard Carollo, assistant special agent in charge for FBI Denver.
“There is the potential for sex workers who are not being trafficked, or pimped in the colloquial term, there is that potential for them to become vulnerable and become trafficked themselves,” Carollo said.
Large events don’t cause a spike in human trafficking, police say. Or at least there isn’t any data to back that up, Jimenez and Carollo said. The idea that events like the Super Bowl or all-star games cause an increase in people being trafficked is more of a myth.
“There really is no data or no studies to back up that human trafficking increases around special events,” Carollo said. “There definitely is the potential for commercial sex to increase around those events, but again, there’s that distinction and they are very different.”
At the National Western Stock Show in 2015, federal and local law enforcement officials found and helped six child victims of sex trafficking and arrested two alleged traffickers, The Denver Post reported. The children, ranging in age from 14 to 17, were victims of commercial sex exploitation.
How you can help identify signs of human trafficking
Tips from the public play a big role in guiding law enforcement to identifying cases of human trafficking and recovering victims, including children.
“With human trafficking, it’s all about reporting,” Carollo said. “And quite often victims of human trafficking either do not come forward or they do not disclose. So as a result, we in law enforcement can only go by what we really have and the encounters that we have.”
In December, a man from Chesapeake, Virginia, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for sex trafficking two minors, including a 14-year-old girl who was missing from Colorado. A tip sent through a hotline about the girl, who was seen in sex trafficking advertisements, helped lead detectives to an arrest, Carollo said.
“It gives you an idea of the true national reach of human trafficking,” he said.
Another tip authorities received through the hotline in the past few weeks helped investigators in Denver recover a 17-year-old girl from a trafficking operation, Jimenez said. Within an hour of receiving the tip, investigators found the girl and helped connect her with resources, Jimenez said, describing an ongoing investigation.
“These things are very fluid in terms of receiving the information and trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together,” he said. “But we, along with the FBI, are very seasoned investigators in this realm and they’ve had a lot of success in taking that information … and then running with that information, dropping everything else they have and identifying victims of human trafficking and recovering them successfully.”
To help prevent human trafficking, the FBI suggests looking out for the following signs:
- People who have no contact with friends or family and no access to identification documents, bank accounts or cash
- Workplaces where psychological manipulation and control are used, or homes or apartments with inhuman living conditions
- People whose communications and movements are always monitored or places where locks and fences are positioned to confine its occupants
- Workers who have excessively long and unusual hours, are unpaid or paid very little are unable to take breaks or days off and have unexplained work injuries or signs of untreated illness or disease
Tips can be reported anonymously to the Colorado Human Trafficking Hotline by calling 1-866-455-5075 or texting 720-999-9724.