A hotel guest who repeatedly refuses housekeeping services. A room paid for in cash, or a guest who doesn't bring luggage. An older man checking in with a younger girl who looks disheveled or frightened.
All of these are of possible tip-offs to juvenile sex trafficking and part of a training session Tuesday at a downtown Minneapolis hotel. Hennepin County and the city launched the education effort with the Minnesota Lodging Association to train hotel employees to spot potential underage sex trafficking.
"It's as easy to dial up for a juvenile to come to your hotel room as it is to order a pizza," Minneapolis police Sgt. Greg Reinhardt said. With the help of ads online at the notorious backpage.com, young girls and boys can be served up to be raped within a half-hour, he and others said.
The training was the first of its kind in Minneapolis. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi had held a similar event in Roseville after a hotel employee there led police to a sex peddler who ended up with a 21-year prison sentence.
"Hotel employees are experts at what happens in hotels," said Minneapolis police Sgt. Grant Snyder, who was one of the trainers at the afternoon session.
Hotel workers know human behavior and often can sense when something is wrong, he said. The training also is about tearing down barriers between law enforcement and hotel employees, many of whom are new to the country and might not trust police.
Dan McElroy, president of the trade group Hospitality Minnesota, said hotel workers are told, "If you see something, say something." The hotel management then can contact investigators. "We have to build their confidence," he said of the workers.
Everyone agreed the problem is widespread.
