COLUMBIA, S.C.
South Carolina’s beer delivery truck drivers soon will use the thousands of miles they travel to look for victims of human trafficking.
The South Carolina Beer Wholesalers Association is now a partner in the state’s Human Trafficking Task Force, the Attorney General’s Office announced Friday.
Drivers for beer wholesalers will be trained to spot the signs of human trafficking and also will carry quick-reference cards on how to report suspected trafficking. The association’s delivery trucks will have signs on them with a national hotline for victims and others that believe they’ve witnessed human trafficking to call.
Those signs will be seen by drivers all across the state, the Attorney General’s Office said.
Drivers are “walking into all the restaurants and all the bars and all the grocery stores and they’re seeing first hand,” Attorney General Alan Wilson said. “So they’re going to be a huge asset to help us raise awareness of human trafficking in South Carolina.”
Human trafficking is crime in which victims are forced into labor or sex for the profit of another. In the Attorney General’s Office’s most recent human trafficking report, Richland County led the state in reported cases of human trafficking.
“Throughout South Carolina, we’re servicing … every retail account throughout the state that sells beer,” said Lance Boozer, executive director of the South Carolina Beer Wholesalers Association. “So that adds up to about a million delivery stops that we’re making every year visiting over 11,000 retail accounts.”
The South Carolina Human Trafficking Task Force is comprised of more than 300 law enforcement agencies, victim service providers, faith-based groups, and industry associations.
David Travis Bland won the South Carolina Press Association’s 2017 Judson Chapman Award for community journalism. As The State’s crime, police and public safety reporter, he strives to inform communities about crimes that affect them and give deeper insight into victims, the accused and law enforcement. He studied history with a focus on the American South at the University of South Carolina.
