First Lady Marty Kemp hosted a meeting of the GRACE Commission, or the Georgians for Refuge, Action, Compassion, and Education Commission which was created to combat human trafficking. The meeting took place in Delta Airlines Flight Museum on Thursday.
Kemp stressed the importance of training in fighting the problem.
“And I’m happy to report that we are in the process of upgrading our training, to reflect some of the progress we’ve made in recent years,” Kemp said. “Even though we’ve done some things, we have a lot left to do and we do have two and a half years left to do that. So, I’m very excited about that.”
GBI Director, Chris Hosey detailed the progress made by the agency with regards to human trafficking.
“From the time that our unit was organized all the way back to Fiscal Year 2021, so FY21, 99 cases that we worked, and it stays fairly consistent,” according to Hosey. “In ’22, [we worked] 97, in 23, [we worked] 91, now we get to ’24. In FY24, [we worked] 123 cases. That tells me that a lot of things are working, the awareness, the recognition, because if our numbers are going up, that’s because it’s being reported to us.”
Hosey says in FY25, from July 1st through August 28th, they have worked 28 cases, with 19 arrests. In addition, GRACE partners have recently begun targeting illicit behavior at massage businesses. They’ve closed 26 such facilities in the year they have been in operation.
