The state's top prosecutor wants Palmetto State residents to understand that not only is human trafficking real, it's happening in South Carolina.
It was a message Attorney General Alan Wilson reiterated several times Thursday to a room packed with members of law enforcement, the media and victim advocates gathered to find out how South Carolina would combat human trafficking in South Carolina.
A task force to come up with a plan was commissioned as part of a law passed in 2012 with the intent of strengthening South Carolina's human trafficking laws, after the state ranked in the "bottom of the bad list," Wilson said.
The Polaris Project, a national organization that fights global human trafficking, ranked South Carolina as No. 6 of the "Dirty Dozen" in 2011, for having weak laws on the issue.
Since the law was enacted, dozens of Palmetto State experts from 18 partner agencies have been working to come up with a plan on how to protect, support and serve human trafficking victims. The first hurdle: getting through to people who don't believe human trafficking is taking place.
"People don't think about human trafficking happening in South Carolina," Wilson said. "They certainly don't think about human trafficking happening in their community."
Another issue the task force ran into is that people stereotype what a human trafficker looks - and their victims - look like. Wilson said in the past, he didn't realize how big and pervasive the issue is in the state.
"It's not easy to fight a war against an enemy that you don't really see, who doesn't wear a uniform," Wilson said.