Project Exodus Begins Internal Investigationsby Mike Masten
Last night's internal investigation of a Thai hostess bar in Los Angeles marked the first of hopefully many internal investigations into potential trafficking locations throughout Los Angeles.
Over the course of the last eight months Project Exodus has been going out weekly into Los Angeles and investigating massage parlors that are suspect for human trafficking. Each week a group of volunteers would meet at Pepperdine University and then make the drive into LA, ending the night in a lonely Jack in the Box and sharing stories of what they had seen.
Through doing this we have compiled pages of notes marking over 160 hours of observation time at these parlors (as compared to the 25 hours of a LAPD investigation), have prayed intensely over a very specific area and have learned and followed up on a child prostitution area. Overall the last 8 months has been extremely successful, but now with the school year ending and the volunteer base lessening with it, it is time that Project Exodus switch into a more specialized field of operation: internal investigation.
Over the last eight months we have learned that though you can tell a lot from watching the activity of a prostitution place, it is very hard to be totally sure about anything taking place unless you actually speak directly with the girls. It is only once you can get direct contact with the girls that the all important questions like, "Where are you from?" "How long have you worked here?", "is this what you thought you would be doing?", "are you able to move freely" can be asked.
Therefore this summer Project Exodus will be shifting its focus from external observation to internal observation in hopes of truly discovering the nature of the work being done in Los Angeles. Hopefully through this type of investigation, we will be able to correctly identify where human trafficking is taking place and then put the gears in motion for a proper investigation and take down of the trafficking cell.
Posts
