{"id":548494,"date":"2026-01-28T05:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T05:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/548494\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T05:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T05:39:10","slug":"maricopa-county-leaders-seek-solutions-to-combat-human-trafficking-in-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/548494\/","title":{"rendered":"Maricopa County leaders seek solutions to combat human trafficking in Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX (AZFamily)<\/b> \u2014 January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month<\/a>, and there\u2019s a renewed crackdown on a notorious stretch of Phoenix.<\/p>\n

The Maricopa County Attorney\u2019s Office<\/a> reports there has been an increase in sex trafficking cases involving kids and teens in recent years.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a community forum hosted by MCAO and Grand Canyon University was held to discuss the growing issue of human trafficking and the impact it has had on Valley communities, especially in the area of Phoenix known as \u201cThe Blade,\u201d near 27th Avenue and Indian School Road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trafficked at 18. I came out at 31,\u201d said Carrie Bradley.<\/p>\n

Bradley, who founded the non-profit IdentiFreed<\/a>, spent more than a dozen years as a victim of sex trafficking herself. She says that her faith saved her, and now she works to help others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that there\u2019s a lot of agencies out there vying for position, but we all need to be working together,\u201d said Bradley.<\/p>\n

In November, dozens of women were arrested for prostitution in \u201cThe Blade\u201d as part of Operation New Beginning, which drew criticism from victim advocates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy go after those people versus the people that are sex trafficking them?\u201d asked Arizona\u2019s Family Reporter Zach Prelutsky.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, no, look, it\u2019s a great question, right? And I think there\u2019s a political divide and there\u2019s some decisiveness in terms of ideology,\u201d answered Grand Canyon University Police<\/a> Chief Mark Heimall.<\/p>\n

Heimall says the ultimate goal is to arrest the sex traffickers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get to the sex trafficker because we know that that\u2019s where that truly makes a difference,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Heimall argues that arresting victims of sex trafficking can lead to help for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can have that level of engagement, especially with the prostitutes, where we can lead with services and we can provide them with resources,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSex trafficking is not a victimless crime. It not only affects the person being trafficked, but it affects families, it affects neighborhoods,\u201d said Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Mitchell knows that this is a problem that isn\u2019t isolated to Maricopa County, but wants to see it stop happening here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI measure success when 27th Avenue is a safe place to walk. And we\u2019re not seeing open prostitution deals taking place, prostitution up and down the street, drug activity, violent activity. When we see that cleaned up, that\u2019ll be success,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here<\/a> with a brief description.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KTVK\/KPHO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AZFamily) \u2014 January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and there\u2019s a renewed crackdown on a notorious stretch…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":548495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,7182,47361,240975,240976,1589,179577,7183,240974,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-548494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-azfamily","tag-grand-canyon-university","tag-human-trafficking-prevention","tag-identifreed","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-human-trafficking","tag-phoenix-news","tag-the-blade","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115971120402419869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}