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Newly appointed U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., said at a hearing that a human trafficking tip line stopped reporting cases to law enforcement.
Moody joined fellow lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee to question President Donald Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, during his Jan. 30 confirmation hearing.
"It might shock you to know that the National Human Trafficking Hotline that was funded by Congress to report tips to law enforcement, in the last four years decided that they would no longer report tips to law enforcement, that they would take a more victim-centered approach," Moody said. "This fell in line with a lot of what we saw over the last four years, with people saying things like, defund the police, abolish the police, nonsense policies that lead to an explosion in crime."
In 2024, Moody worked with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to launch a statewide human trafficking tip line after concerns the national hotline was failing to give tips to local law enforcement in a timely way.
PolitiFact found no announcements from the National Human Trafficking Hotline signaling any reporting policy shift over the last four years. The only mention of a potential change came in a 2023 letter that multiple state attorneys general, including Moody, signed that recounted comments from a hotline executive who said the service was "beginning to transition away" from serving as a tip line.
Rafael Avalos, a spokesperson for the hotline’s parent company, told PolitiFact in an email that the service has not changed its reporting policies.
"The instances in which the National Human Trafficking Hotline reports to law enforcement have remained consistent for more than 10 years," Avalos wrote.
The hotline says it reports tips to law enforcement and prioritizes obtaining victims’ consent before alerting authorities. The organization, on its website, said it alerts authorities, with or without victim consent, in cases involving imminent harm, child sex abuse or when required by law.
PolitiFact emailed Moody’s office for evidence but received no reply.
The national hotline’s origins
The National Human Trafficking Hotline was born out of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, a federal law that recognized human trafficking as a crime. Its mandate is to connect human trafficking victims with social services and notify police about potential trafficking "as requested or required by law" within 24 hours, according to grant materials The Washington Post cited.
Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization working to reduce sex and labor trafficking in North America, has run the service since 2007. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and private donors fund it.
Federal law requires that the hotline’s phone number be posted in all federal buildings, at every port of entry and in airport, bus station and train station restrooms.
The hotline’s website outlines how the organization decides when to report to authorities. It says the organization "respects an individual's right to make the decision regarding whether or not to report information about his/her experience to law enforcement or other parties," and recognizes that informing law enforcement "can lead to increased investigations and prosecutions, deter future trafficking, and help victims safely exit situations of human trafficking."
"Whenever possible, the Trafficking Hotline endeavors to speak directly with victims to discuss the various reporting and referral options and receive explicit consent to make a report on his/her behalf," the FAQ page says. "Consent from a victim and the safety of any individuals involved are the most important factors the Trafficking Hotline considers when weighing whether or not to make a report."
In a 2020 grant application that The Washington Post reviewed, the Health and Human Services Department wrote that the hotline "must defer to the individual seeking assistance on if, and when, to report their case to law enforcement, unless required to do otherwise by state-mandated child welfare reporting requirements."
Other hotlines, such as the National Sexual Abuse Hotline, operate similarly. They keep calls from adult victims confidential and allow victims to decide whether to involve police.
The hotline received more than 30,000 calls, texts and emails in 2023, according to Polaris data and identified 7,380 unique cases of potential human trafficking. The organization said it refers about a third of those potential cases to police.
Attorneys general claims of recent reporting change
The claim about a recent reporting change could stem from a 2022 meeting between Republican Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Polaris CEO Catherine Chen.
Thirty-six attorneys general signed a 2023 letter to congressional leaders that mentioned the meeting.
"It has recently come to our attention that the National Human Trafficking Hotline ("Hotline"), which Congress has funded for 15 years, is not reporting tips of adult trafficking to state law enforcement except under the limited circumstance where the victim self-reports and affirmatively consents to the Hotline making the report," the letter says. "Not only do we believe this action contravenes one of Congress’ intended functions of the Hotline, but we believe it disrupts the federal-state partnership to end human trafficking and help its victims."
The letter said Fitch expressed concern during the meeting with Chen about what she said was a lack of tips to Mississippi authorities from the hotline. The letter said Chen told Fitch the hotline takes a victim-centered approach that weighs potential adverse consequences to victims, and that it "was beginning to transition away from serving as a tip line to concentrate more on connecting survivors with resources."
PolitiFact asked Fitch for data showing the number of reports Mississippi law enforcement received from tips but received no reply. We found no data on the hotline’s website or elsewhere that details the number of hotline tips reported to law enforcement over the years.
Fitch’s office told The Washington Post in July 2023 that a 2021 case drew attention to the issue. The Post reported that a man called the hotline after hearing from an out-of-state friend who needed help and the hotline said it couldn’t do anything. Fitch’s office told the newspaper it was alarmed to learn that many third-party tips are not referred to police.
In interviews with The Post, Polaris acknowledged delays in sharing information received via email and webchats, which they said are intended for "nonurgent communications," during a three-month period of staffing shortages in 2022. But the organization pushed back on other criticism.
In a March 2023 response to the attorneys general letter, Polaris said that concerns raised about its reporting practices were based on a misunderstanding of the hotline’s mission.
"The Trafficking Hotline is not primarily a law enforcement tip line, but rather is authorized by Congress and funded by HHS to ‘assist victims of severe forms of trafficking in persons in communicating with service providers,’" the statement said.
The hotline "works with victims to determine what they need to begin to break free and rebuild their lives," the statement said. "This is important because traffickers take consent, choice, and freedom away from victims."
Polaris said it "actively partner(s) with hundreds of law enforcement agencies all over the country to ensure countless traffickers are arrested and justice is served."
In April 2023, U.S. Reps. Laurel M. Lee, R-Fla., and Kathy Castor, D-Fla., introduced the National Human Trafficking Hotline Enhancement Act that would compel the hotline to provide information from calls to law enforcement on request. The bill made it through committee but never got consideration on the House floor.
PolitiFact asked Polaris whether the attorneys general letter accurately represented Chen’s comments, and if Chen had been describing a policy shift when she met with Fitch. Polaris pointed us to the 2023 Washington Post story with comments from Chen.
"We believe law enforcement has to be part of the solution," The Post quotes Chen as saying. "But this idea that you can mandate that the hotline report every single bit of information whenever it is that law enforcement wants it fundamentally reverses the trust that we’re trying to build with victims and survivors. And they will absolutely stop calling us."
Our ruling
Moody said the National Human Trafficking Hotline decided in the last four years to "no longer report tips to law enforcement" and to take a more victim-centered approach.
The hotline says it reports tips to law enforcement authorities but prioritizes obtaining victims’ consent first. The organization also alerts authorities, with or without victim consent, in cases involving imminent harm, child sex abuse, or when required by law. The organization said it consistently refers about one-third of human trafficking victims to law enforcement.
PolitiFact found no announcements that signaled a reporting policy change over the last four years. A hotline spokesperson said its policies have remained consistent for more than a decade.
Moody provided no evidence to back her claim.
At PolitiFact, the burden of proof is on the speaker. Lacking evidence to support the claim, we rate it False.
PolitiFact Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman and Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
Our Sources
- C-Span, FBI Director Nominee Kash Patel Testifies at Confirmation Hearing, Jan. 30, 2025
- WFLA, Florida launches statewide human trafficking hotline, May 16, 2024
- GovInfo.gov, PUBLIC LAW 106–386—OCT. 28, 2000, Accessed Feb. 3, 2025
- National Human Trafficking Hotline homepage, Accessed Jan. 30, 2025
- National Human Trafficking Hotline, Hotline FAQs, Accessed Jan. 30, 2025
- National Association of Attorneys General, National Human Trafficking Hotline reports, Feb. 27, 2023
- Congress.gov, H.R.2601 - National Human Trafficking Hotline Enhancement Act, 2023
- Polaris Project, Polaris’s Statement on Concerns Related to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, March 1, 2023
- The Washington Post, A trafficking hotline could be forced to report to police. Victims may stop calling, advocates say, July 14, 2023
- Email interview, Rafael Avalos, Polaris Project spokesperson, Jan. 30-Jan. 31, 2025
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