Dalton, Hamilton Medical Center To Host Human Trafficking Prevention Conference
Friday, July 26th, 2024
The City of Dalton and Hamilton Medical Center will host a human trafficking prevention training conference next week at the Dalton Convention Center. The conference, which is designed to train police officers, prosecutors, first responders, and medical professionals to recognize and respond to stop trafficking incidents, is being funded by the City of Dalton’s share of the National Opioid Settlement.
The conference will be held at the Dalton Convention Center Tuesday July 30th through Thursday, August 1st from 8:00 am until 5:00 pm. The conference will be taught by Dan Nash and Jinisha Bhatt. Dan Nash is the founder of the Human Trafficking Training Center and a retired Missouri State Trooper. During his 27-year career, Nash spend 24 years in the criminal investigations unit and human trafficking unit. Jinisha Bhatt is an anti-human trafficking and anti-money laundering instructor who investigated fraud, money laundering, and human trafficking at Scotiabank in Canada.
Topics will include prevention, including how to recognize the indicators of a possible human trafficking incident and the signs of trauma bonding and PTSD, and also operations and investigations including how to transition from a routine call to a trafficking investigation and how to interview possible suspects.
Mayor Annalee Sams and Judean Guinn, Hamilton Medical Center’s vice president of patient care and chief nursing officer, will speak on Tuesday morning to welcome conference attendees to Dalton. More than 150 people are expected to attend the conference, coming from across Georgia, as well as Alabama and Mississippi. Registration for the conference has closed.
The Mayor and Council of Dalton voted to authorize the use of funds from the National Opioid Settlement for the conference at their May 6th meeting. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, funds from the settlement can only be used for certain purposes. From those acceptable uses, the City of Dalton has elected to use the funds for human trafficking prevention, funding for the local Narcotics Anonymous chapter, and a partnership with Whitfield County’s Conasauga Community Addiction Recovery Center.
