From behind closed doors to online spaces, investigators across Northern Nevada spent the past year focused on one goal: disrupting human exploitation and finding people who needed help.
Between January 1, 2025, and January 1, 2026, the Regional Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit carried out targeted investigations involving sex trafficking, child exploitation, child sexual abuse material, and people accused of soliciting or profiting from exploitation.
The unit, known as HEAT, includes detectives from the Reno Police Department, Sparks Police Department, and the Washoe County School District Police Department. Together, they worked cases that resulted in 143 arrests and 287 criminal charges, most of them felonies…