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The Cities Blog
Laura Yuen

Hotels take a stand against sex trafficking

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Some heavy hitters in the hospitality industry are trying to do their part to dismantle a common sex-trafficking pipeline.

In almost every recent case involving children sold into sex, the transaction "begins on Backpage.com and then ends up at a local hotel or motel in our community, often-times in a suburban location," says the Ramsey County Attorney's office.

Now the county attorney's office is enlisting the help of hotels through a first-ever training session in Minnesota teaching hotel employees how to spot signs of trafficking within their businesses. Local investigators, prosecutors, and women's advocates will lead the training Thursday afternoon in Roseville.

One of the featured speakers is Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chairwoman of Carlson, the Minneapolis-based hospitality and travel company. About 20 hotels/motels and 75 lodging-industry employees in Ramsey County will also be present.

The training comes just weeks after the city of Minneapolis passed a resolution demanding that Backpage.com stop running adult classified ads. My metro unit colleague Sasha Aslanian delved into the migration of child prostitution from the streets to the Internet here.