TARPON SPRINGS — The GFWC Woman’s Club of Tarpon Springs has launched a grassroots campaign to combat human trafficking by placing hotline stickers in public restrooms, but the group is encountering bureaucratic obstacles in their efforts to expand the initiative statewide.
The campaign comes as Florida grapples with staggering human trafficking numbers. Recent studies from 2024 and 2025 estimate more than 700,000 victims statewide, including about 500,000 victims of labor exploitation and 200,000 victims of sex trafficking, many of them minors. Florida’s tourism, hospitality and agriculture industries make it a hub for exploitation, consistently ranking among the top three states for human trafficking cases behind California and Texas.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline identified 832 trafficking cases in Florida last year, the third-highest number nationally. Experts consider this an undercount since it reflects only reported cases…