Detective Captain David Conway, Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis
*This podcast discusses topics around sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking and physical violence. Missoula County acknowledges this content may be difficult for some and if so, encourages listeners to seek support from one of the local resources listed below.
January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and Tuesday, Jan. 11, is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To understand how this issue impacts Missoula County, Commissioners Strohmaier and Vero visit with Missoula County Detective Captain David Conway and YWCA Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis.
Unfortunately, human trafficking is here in the Missoula County community. This episode helps listeners understand what it is and provides resources for victims and tools for parents to help protect their children.
Human trafficking is the exploitation of another person for labor, domestic servitude or commercial sexual activity by force, fraud or coercion. It is also the act of enslaving or exploiting unwilling people.
If you are a victim, or think someone is, please contact one of these local resources for help:
Call or text 1-833-406-STOP (7867), the local hotline for victims or for reporting human trafficking
Aims to end human trafficking through the process of education, awareness and collaboration with local, state and federal resources and community partners.
Promotes the safety of Missoula County citizens, the protection and healing of crime victims, the efficient and just treatment of defendants and offenders, the ongoing improvement and coordination of the justice system’s response to crime, and the prevention of crime and the reduction of recidivism.
**This project was supported by Subgrant No. W05-753 awarded by the state administering office for the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice's STOP Formula Grant Program. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the state or the U.S. Department of Justice.
*This podcast discusses topics around sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking and physical violence. Missoula County acknowledges this content may be difficult for some and if so, encourages listeners to seek support from one of the local resources listed below.
January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and Tuesday, Jan. 11, is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To understand how this issue impacts Missoula County, Commissioners Strohmaier and Vero visit with Missoula County Detective Captain David Conway and YWCA Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis.
Unfortunately, human trafficking is here in the Missoula County community. This episode helps listeners understand what it is and provides resources for victims and tools for parents to help protect their children.
Human trafficking is the exploitation of another person for labor, domestic servitude or commercial sexual activity by force, fraud or coercion. It is also the act of enslaving or exploiting unwilling people.
If you are a victim, or think someone is, please contact one of these local resources for help:
Call or text 1-833-406-STOP (7867), the local hotline for victims or for reporting human trafficking
Aims to end human trafficking through the process of education, awareness and collaboration with local, state and federal resources and community partners.
Promotes the safety of Missoula County citizens, the protection and healing of crime victims, the efficient and just treatment of defendants and offenders, the ongoing improvement and coordination of the justice system’s response to crime, and the prevention of crime and the reduction of recidivism.
**This project was supported by Subgrant No. W05-753 awarded by the state administering office for the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice's STOP Formula Grant Program. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the state or the U.S. Department of Justice.
Welcome back, everyone, to Tip of the Spear with your very own Missoula County commissioners, I'm Dave Strohmaier. I'm joined by Commissioner Juanita Vero today. Commissioner Slotnick is unable to join us for this edition of the show. We are also joined and pleased to have with Detective Captain David Conway from the Missoula County Sheriff's Office and Lyndayle Mattis, Pathways program manager at the YWCA. Before we get rolling, I want to welcome Commissioner Vero as the new chair of the Missoula Board of County Commissioners. For folks listening out there, a bit of trivia. We rotate the chair position between the three commissioners, so every year there is a new chair. So in our six year terms, each commissioner will serve twice as chair. I'm not sure which type of furniture I am now relegated to assuming, but welcome Chair Vero.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Thank you. Thank you.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
So, today, we're going to talk about a pretty serious topic here in the state of Montana and our community and across the nation, and that is human trafficking. And this is a little bit more I don't know how to say it, certainly a weightier topic than some of our recent topics on Tip of the Spear. But nonetheless, it's something that we as Missoula County government and the Missoula community are wrestling with. And to set up the conversation, I guess, Captain Conway or Lyndayle, you just want to talk a little bit about who you are and who you represent here today. Captain Conway.
Detective Captain David Conway:
My name is Dave Conway. I'm the captain of detectives for the sheriff's office. I've been here with Missoula County Sheriff's Office since 1997. In one capacity or another. For the last six years, I've been the captain of detectives leading a group of a dozen or so investigators, detectives investigating all the crimes and criminal activity that occur within Missoula County. One of those that we heavily focus on and are continually striving to work towards is this area of human trafficking or child exploitation.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
Thanks.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
And Lyndayle, yeah. Introduce yourself and tell us about Pathways and your work.
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
Thank you. My name is Lyndayle Mattis. I'm the Pathways program manager at the YWCA, and I've been there since 2016. So, the Pathways program for the YWCA serves survivors of domestic and sexual violence and also human trafficking. We have a 24-hour domestic violence shelter, as well as a crisis line and a walk in center. And then we have many other services that we offer in our new Meadowlark building.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Which is amazing. Congratulations.
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
Thank you.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
So, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. So the entire month of January is dedicated to awareness and prevention. Big national issue so, locally, what does human trafficking look like for us here in Missoula County and what efforts are in place to address it
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
So I can really talk about what I see? And of course, I'm looking through the lens of the Pathways program at the YWCA. So I'm not really very educated on community wide, but I do know what we see and I can share some statistics. So just for the year of 2021, we served 32 survivors that identified human trafficking or sex trafficking as part of their victimization. And we also worked with eight different professionals in our community to kind of collaborate.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
I'm sorry, human trafficking and sex trafficking are those synonymous or there are other types of trafficking besides sex trafficking that you guys are working with?
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
Human trafficking is more like labor traffic and then sex trafficking is sex trafficking.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
So what kind of labor trafficking happens here? Missoula County,
Detective Captain David Conway:
I wouldn't say that we've run across labor trafficking per say here in Missoula County. Most of what we see is sex trafficking.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Ok. Thanks. Sorry to interrupt. Keep going.
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
No, that's OK. So a lot of what we do is we just serve people through our shelter or our crisis line who have identified as a sex trafficking survivor or we collaborate with other agencies to really fulfill whatever resources or help financially or materialistic that we can to support these survivors in getting where they need to go.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
Dave.
Detective Captain David Conway:
Yeah, human trafficking is a, is a difficult and complex topic to talk about, and there it can take many different forms. What we see, a lot of that wouldn't have traditionally been thought of as sex trafficking is relationship trafficking, where, for example, a boyfriend convinces a girlfriend to engage in sex for exchange for drugs or for money. That's still, by definition, human trafficking and civil cases that we actively work. It doesn't necessarily have to be the stereotypical pimp in a gold Cadillac like you see on TV for it to be a real problem in a real crime that we're facing in this community.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
So what are some of the common warning signs that people and parents can be aware of, or where do we where do you want the kind of lay citizen? How do you start to think about this, look at it, be aware of what's happening in our community?
Detective Captain David Conway:
I think with the advent of social media and the amount of time that people spend on it, especially younger adults or kids, it has really increased their vulnerability or their ability to be preyed upon.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
So can you tell a story like what's your classic example?
Detective Captain David Conway:
So we've been seeing this a lot. So since early part of this summer, we've partnered with the FBI out of their Salt Lake human trafficking division to do more productive, proactive stings. And we've done about a dozen cases since early summer, arresting guys. Really bad guys who are finding kids on the internet and exploiting them and getting them to meet with them. So the problem is kids have access to social media and they're living out their lives on social media much more than all of us did when we were young adults, kids. So that creates more of an opportunity for these predators to be able to find them, as well as it creates an opportunity for the predators to do this behind a computer screen with anonymity. It's difficult for a middle aged guy to walk up to a teenager in the mall or in a park and strike up a conversation, but not so on the internet. And so it creates much more opportunity and they can do it in a much more rapid pace.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
Well, I guess speaking of the internet and just the I guess opportunities, it opens up for folks to do bad things and for conversely, especially kids to be in a vulnerable place and to be taken advantage of and preyed upon. Talk a little bit about the EARN It Act. This is something a piece of federal legislation proposed legislation that the Board of County Commissioners here yourself, Dave, and others asked our U.S. senators here in Montana to get behind as a means to hold internet companies more accountable for what they are allowing to be placed on their platforms. What is the EARN It Act? What advantage does it bring to helping really make a dent in in the bad things you all are seeing?
Detective Captain David Conway:
So there's some certain apps that really cater towards this type of activity. I'll use, for example, the previous Backpage that was out that has since been shut down through legislation and then through court hearings. But for example, it really provided a platform that was much easier and Much more accessible and Clearly was designed just for these type of events. This act would make it much simpler for the government in essence to shut down those apps that are that are really detailing for this type of activity.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
Have you gotten any update as far as where that is at and in Congress right now and likelihood of this thing getting over the finish line?
Detective Captain David Conway:
You know, I don't know where it's at exactly in legislation at this point, it's a tough uphill battle. The thing that people always hang their hat on is the First Amendment right, the right to free speech and the government stepping on that. So it's a fine balance to protect people and also protect their rights.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
Right.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
So can we go back and have warning signs again because well, then I'm also thinking about online, not just apps, but even I mean, you can be on a website that selling tractor tires and you scroll through the comments and then, oh my gosh, you get to someone who's trying to it's essentially traffic or illicit illegal activity. If you like reading down through the comments. So how can you how do you even begin to monitor that or you catch that or...
Detective Captain David Conway:
As a parent, is that what you're asking?
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
As a parent, as a professional, as a community member. What should we be doing?
Detective Captain David Conway:
Well, that's that's a couple of questions I'll start with as a parent, I think it's important that parents be involved in their kid's life. And the problem is kids are smart and they know how to use technology often much better than than we do as their parents. And I think most parents recognize that, and they realize that they need to monitor their kids social media accounts. The problem is it it's very difficult to monitor a social media account that you don't know exists. It's easy for you to be able to go on to say your kid's Facebook and see who they're chatting with and who they're talking to. But it's also easy for your kid to create another Facebook account that you don't know about or another account or another account on one of these more nefarious sites and not under their name, but under an assumed name, even maybe posing as an adult. So not only is it important to monitor their accounts, to know what they all are, to know how to access them and monitor them, but also to monitor their physical devices, monitor the phone itself or the laptop or whatever device it is they're using to see what accounts they have.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
And that is tough.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
How do your kids respond to that?
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
My my kids do not respond at all to that. It's I mean, it's it's partially just speaking as a parent, instilling in your kids, whether it's social media or just talking to someone on the street. I mean, I grew up in an era where sort of warning, you guys don't talk to strangers, don't take candy from strangers, this sort of thing. Well, how do you transfer that into the 21st century and just instill in kids a sense of situational awareness and that someone who might be appearing, whether it's in in the flesh or virtually as as a friend, and if you don't know the person, be wary of that. But yeah, it's it's tough. When kids have phones, they have computers, it's difficult to know what all accounts they have at times.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
So Lyndayle, kind of what are the stories that you hear or like? How does this begin? How does a survivor end up in this situation?
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
Yeah, I think that goes back to what Conway said earlier about its relationship. So what we're seeing is like survivors are doing things for their partner that they wouldn't normally do for like drugs or to please the partner. Or maybe they're like houseless so they're, you know, needing money for a hotel room. So they're just putting themselves in a situation that they wouldn't normally do, which could be trading like sex for money. We hear a lot of that and then we hear survivors telling us stories that they don't even recognize what it is that they're doing until we kind of talk, talk to them and kind of educate them a little bit about what sex trafficking looks like and that really without knowing like that is what they're involved in, and that is what they're being asked to do.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
So how do we have these conversations with our kids who are at an age when you know you're becoming sexually active and dealing with hormones and dealing with trying to be independent and learn about yourself and who you are and experiment like what? What can we do?
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
Yeah, that's a great question. I think it comes back to, yeah, be involved in your kid's life, know what they're doing and just have the tough conversations and really name like what it is and what predators do and have that open communication with your child, so that way, hopefully, they'll make the right decision and smart choices and come to you when somebody approaches them or something feels uncomfortable on the internet or they're getting like there's a lot of red flags on like too much praise or somebody giving you all these compliments or trying to buy you all these expensive things or and like really just paying attention to what your children are doing and who they're engaging with. I know it like monitoring their social media and their phones seems almost impossible, but I think just remembering that like they're so vulnerable, especially teenagers who I know for my children, they they feel like they know it all at teenage years, right? So just making sure that they know that this is this is out there and it's in our community and it's scary. And just to like that, I'm a safe person that you can talk to me about anything.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Once you start to think about this or talk about this, it becomes surprisingly, disturbingly pervasive. So what can we do to address the consumers? How do we identify consumers and how to we need to be talking about the predators, if you will?
Detective Captain David Conway:
Well, like I said before, we've partnered with the FBI and have been doing a number of those kind of cases throughout this year and really targeting referred to as John Stings. It's amazing how quickly if you present yourself as a young child, how quickly a predator.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
When you say young child, what what age are we talking about?
Detective Captain David Conway:
It really doesn't matter. So anywhere between eight and 18, it's amazing how quickly you will be approached online and how quickly that turns into a sexual conversation. So I guess for those predators who might be listening, just realize that it when you show up to meet them, it might not be a young child, it might be a 40-year-old cop. All we can really try to do is cut down demand.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Mm hmm. And can we talk a little bit more about demand so. Why does this happen? I mean, this kind of a nave question, but who's a psychologist in the room here?
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
Yeah, I mean, the folks who who during your sting operations, you're you're nabbing, have I suppose they could be all over the map, but are these individuals who've been engaged in this for a long time or this?
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Are they victims of trauma themselves or what...?
Detective Captain David Conway:
Some are. Many of them have previous hands on offenses where they've actively engaged in these kind of events before many of them are into child pornography whenever we search their devices and their phone, find pornography. I would say that the majority of the ones who we encounter have not just started this, they've been involved for a while, maybe they've been caught before and maybe not. I don't know that this is a new thing for society, as much as it's become more prevalent with the advent of social media, and it's created a greater access to victims instead of just being victimizing those within your immediate circle. Now you have the opportunity to victimize anyone who's on the internet.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I heard stories from my mother back in the 1940s of scenarios with predators out there. Not that much different than what we're hearing today. So truly, nothing is new under the Sun other than the ability or the tools that folks have available to them to exploit others, sadly.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Can we go back to? Yeah. Signs of exploitation like how can we identify friends, family members, people in our community who are victims and what does that look like?
Detective Captain David Conway:
Well, I think just like Lyndayle was saying, signs of grooming. Signs of like your kid showing up with expensive items that there's no explanation for of how they got. Running away, sudden turns in behavior, sudden turns in grades.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
I mean, in terms of behavior that sounds like any high school kid or like.
Detective Captain David Conway:
Sure. Yeah, yeah, it's not an easy topic. There's not a magic wand that I can tell you that would solve this.
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
Ok. Yeah, I would agree with all that. Having excess money that they can't really explain where they got it from or just even being very inconsistent and. Describing where they're at or what they've been doing. Yep, constant runaways, so it is it is hard because some of these behaviors could be other things, but they could also be underlying, yeah, grooming and somebody is like preying on them.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
And so you guys are are parents. How does it feel then to parent children in this environment? I mean, this is your work and now do you look out there and that's all you see are predators and victims or survivors? How what's your self care? Like how do you how do you kind of maintain?
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
I just recognize that just because this is what I do for a living, that doesn't mean that that's every single person in Missoula, thank goodness it's it's really is a small percentage. We just see it on a more regular basis. And I just really focus on the like the little things with my children and really just enjoy spending time and getting to know them and just hanging out and take care of myself by getting out in those beautiful mountains that were looking at and just really focusing on, like my own health. So that's what I do.
Detective Captain David Conway:
I think cops kids have a rough life. We see so much tragedy of all sorts on a daily basis that we tend to become very, very sensitive to that and extremely protective of the kids. So it's a tough job being a being a cop's kid, I think.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
And as, yeah, a commissioner's kid?
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
I don't think about it a whole lot. And probably from the standpoint that that's. Unlike our two guests today who the world in which they move professionally, maybe brings them into brings into stark relief possibilities out there for for harm and for tragedy. The best I can do right now and I'm trying to do as a parent, which is always imperfect, is is raising smart and savvy kids who, as I mentioned earlier, are situationally aware and all in any manner of different ways, including the characters and lowlifes out there who might be wanting to prey upon them, but different, different perspective. But I think we're all probably echoing the same concern as far as just keeping your eyes open and aware of your surroundings.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Yeah, I don't have children, but I'm at the age now where my friend's children are starting to develop and it it causes me a little bit of anxiety, you know? And then what can we do to raise these wholehearted, resilient kids who really respect themselves so that they can go out and about in the world and make good decisions? It's hard, but back to because we're not going be able to answer that. Then what, what do you want the community to know about trafficking in Missoula County or I-90?
Detective Captain David Conway:
Well, it's real. It happens, it happens here in Missoula County. It happens not only on these child exploitation cases that we're talking about, not only on the relationship cases we're talking about, but it happens in the more traditional sense of girls being trafficked by a pimp and posted online for sale here in our community. Those are very difficult cases for us to investigate the work because they move very rapidly and they don't stay here very long. And by the time that we figure out that we have a problem, they've moved two or three towns by then. We do have a human trafficking task force that was stood up. It was originally created probably a decade ago for that purpose. What we found back then, I was a lieutenant of detectives, was whenever we would encounter girls who were moving through and being trafficked, we would do our investigation and we would try to get them help. It takes quite a bit of time to develop the rapport and the relationship with them, with those victims and those survivors to get them to be able to talk to us. But once we did, then we still have that person to do something with that needs a lot of care and a lot of support. So we developed the task force, partnered with the YWCA and with a variety of other organizations in the community to provide that aftercare to provide that step back towards life.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
How do people even find out about Pathways or YWCA?
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
That's just us trying to raise community awareness. So we have a 24-hour crisis line that is answered by an advocate. Literally any time of the day. And then you can come to our walk in center if you want to speak to somebody in person, which is just Monday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m. at our office Meadowlark.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Ok. Back up for a second. So crisis line like if I'm concerned about my own situation or maybe someone else's situation, I mean, I might just kind of Googling this or yeah, certainly with the process.
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
Yeah. So you can Google our crisis line number (1-800-483-7858) or it's on our website
(https:
//www.ywcamissoula.org/). Our website is even set up to where you can exit out of it real quick and it all just erase from your browser so like you can be looking and then if you need to quickly escape, you can. Our crisis line numbers also tied to a one eight hundred number (1-800-483-7858). So like if you don't have a phone with minutes, you can just call from anywhere and like, that's really the easiest way to get into either talk to an advocate about resources available or get into our shelter.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
So one thing that just a little bit of a shift here that we've become acutely aware of in recent years is the impact upon Native communities as far as human trafficking, missing and murdered indigenous women in particular. How have you found that to be playing out in the work that you do here locally?
Pathways Program Manager Lyndayle Mattis:
Again, so I'm just looking at it through the lens of the Pathways program, so we do serve a very large Native population that comes through our shelter and within that population a lot do identify as like sex trafficking as part of their victimization. So what we're doing is like we're just reacting to a crime that's already been committed and then trying to like help them put the pieces back together.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
I mean, is there a concerted effort to collaborate or partnership with the Tribes? Are there kind of two different efforts happening here at the Tribal level and then this community level or state level? Or how?
Detective Captain David Conway:
There are and I can't tell you that I'm an expert on what all of that is and how that's happening. I wish our task force leader was was on with us today and he could tell you all about that. And we rely heavily on on on him and on the task force (Missoula Human Trafficking Task Force www.missoulahumantrafficking.com) to make that relationship happen. It certainly is a problem with the Native community. Just like its problem with with all communities, what we see a lot are kids who are in vulnerable situations are more vulnerable to these types of events.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Vulnerable situation is poverty. Or what else are you?
Detective Captain David Conway:
Yeah, poverty. Lack of housing. Any situation where there's not both parents in the home. There's a variety of things that can make a kid more vulnerable, but I think it's also worth noting it. It's not just those vulnerable kids, it's not just those stereotypical kids that we always think of who may fall victim to this. It can be anyone's kid.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Yeah, that's important to remember that a victim or survivor of trafficking looks like anyone.
Detective Captain David Conway:
Anyone.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
Right.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
And something I think we we forget.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
Well, thanks so much for joining us today. Any other last words that you like to leave with our listening audience out there?
Detective Captain David Conway:
Be safe if you know something about human trafficking, if you know of a victim, if you know of a person who believed may be a predator. Let us know.
Commissioner Dave Strohmaier:
Well, there's a couple numbers that we've heard about one already, and folks could call*Correction* *1-833-406-7867* is what stops stands for. Or of course, call 9-1-1. If there's if there's something that you suspect is going on, that's illegal. And I say this again and again to folks on any issue, don't second guess yourself. There's a lot of folks who think, well, it's it may not be that serious, but if you suspect something that's that's not quite right, don't hesitate to dial 9-1-1 and and there will be someone to hear you out and help you with your your situation.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:
Yeah. Thank you so much for we're so grateful for all you do to keep our community safe, so.