Return on Prevention vs. Return on Regret

This is a real-life experience.

I went down to one of the main hotel/casinos on the Las Vegas Strip to meet a buddy and his wife who were in town for some fun and some gambling.

As my buddy and I were standing and chatting in the casino by the poker tables, a big guy with an athletic build approached us and asked us what we did for energy and fun? My buddy and I did not know this guy, so we were a little confused and we both answered with sort of a vague “not much”.

The guy then said, yeah but what do you do for energy and fun? At that point, he turned and motioned to a young girl standing off to the side to come closer and then said, how about some energy and fun?

My buddy and I both said no thanks, and the guy and the young girl walked off and seemingly continued to look for “customers”.

Return on Regret.

I (and my buddy) still to this day wish we could have done something to help this young girl and prevent what looked like human trafficking/prostitution. SADLY, we did not have any real options because the hotel/casino did not offer First Preventers options to help with stopping human trafficking.

Challenges and Disconnects:

  • We did not see any Security because most casinos do not have a visible Security presence because they do not want tourists/customers to think the casino is unsafe.
  • We were not going to start screaming for Security, and casinos do not want that either.
  • We were not going to make a citizen’s arrest or try and physically hold the guy until Security responded, and casinos do not want that either.
  • We were not going to call LVMPD because the wait time is too long, and the guy would be gone anyway.
  • We were not going to follow the guy since we did not know if he was armed.
  • We were helpless and the guy knew it!

Connecting the Dots:
Return on Prevention

Return on Prevention is always better than Return on Regret. Efforts to stop human trafficking have been going on for years, unfortunately, it is still occurring too often because the dots are not being connected even when it is happening in the open and right in front of people in casinos and hotels. Clearly, it is time to start Connecting the Dots because those who are being trafficked need our help to stop it!

Here is what Connecting the Dots and Return on Prevention could have looked like utilizing Awareity’s proven, evidence-based, community-wide Connecting the Dots Platform and First Preventers strategies that would have empowered my buddy and I (and others) to help this young girl.

Community-driven Prevention with First Preventers and the Butterfly Effect:

What could have happened was the casino and hotel could have implemented a First Preventers Program and First Preventers Team(s) that were trained and ready to see the bigger picture and take immediate prevention actions.  For preventing human trafficking, the Team Members could have included Casino Security, Casino Safety, Casino Risk Management, Casino Management, Law Enforcement contact(s), FBI contact(s), Human Trafficking resources, and potentially others.

To help my buddy and I take action as First Preventers (and any of the locals and 40+ million tourists annually on the Las Vegas Strip), the casino could have implemented the proven Butterfly Effect and Butterfly icon. My buddy and I then could have used our phones to take a picture or video of the guy and the young girl as they walked away, clicked on the Butterfly icon on the casino/hotel web page, selected Human Trafficking; then confidentially or anonymously uploaded the pictures/videos and answered additional questions specific to Human Trafficking incidents.  Next, the Human Trafficking Team (organization-wide and community-wide members mentioned above) would automatically and immediately have been notified so they could immediately log in to Awareity’s Connecting the Dots Platform to “see” the indicators, pictures, videos, and additional information… and take immediate actions!  Casino Security could have accessed security cameras to see if the guy and the girl were still on the casino floor and immediately dispatched Security, Safety, Law Enforcement, or others, and perhaps that young girl’s future could have changed for the better that evening.

Preventive Intelligence and 6 Stages of Preventing:

If the guy and young girl were not immediately located, the casino/hotel personnel and community-wide resources, could immediately start gathering preventive intelligence from their silos of information and used the Connecting the Dots Platform to collect, funnel, share, and connect the dots. Law enforcement and FBI could have used facial recognition to look for matches and camera surveillance could have been reviewed to collect more dots and see the bigger picture and see other related intelligence that was funneled into the Connecting the Dots Platform from numerous other incident reporting silos (hotlines, text lines, apps, law enforcement, employees, community resources, etc.). From there, team members could engage in the 6 Stages of Preventing: Collecting/Sharing, Assessing/Investigating, Connecting the Dots, Intervening/Monitoring, Preventing, and Updating Ongoing/Situational Awareness and then utilize the proven community-driven First Preventers Program, platform, and strategies to prevent human trafficking and numerous other incidents and tragedies.

It takes community-driven efforts and connected First Preventers Team Members to prevent human trafficking, as well as many other incidents such as terrorism, acts of violence, sex abuse, gangs, suicides, and more.

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