Andover Police Hold Meeting with Hotel Managers About Human Trafficking

ANDOVER, MA -- Hookers and hotels often go hand-in-hand, but Andover police detectives, along with the FBI and State Police met with hotel managers from Tewksbury, Methuen and Nashua, N.H. to discuss issues in the hospitality industry that affect law enforcement, specifically prostitution and human trafficking.

"We know that prostitution is not a victimless crime,” Andover Police Chief Patrick Keefe said. "This is an issue of human suffering and misery. We know that the women being advertised on internet classifieds websites and rarely, if ever, individual people. In nearly all cases, there is someone behind the scenes, profiting from these crimes."

FBI Special Agent Adam Boynton shared a presentation with employees at the April 4 meeting, which was held at the Residence Inn in Andover. The presentation included vital information on the warning signs and behaviors associated with human trafficking and what hotel staff can do to curb these incidents from occurring in their hotels.

Andover is near the intersections of two major highways north of Boston and has a large hospitality industry.
Recently, there have been confirmed cases of human trafficking in Andover hotels.

The strong partnership between Andover Police and the hotel industry has resulted in arrest for human trafficking and several sting operations targeting customers of prostitutes, resulting in numerous arrests, Keefe said.

"Going forward, the Andover Police Department will continue planning future operations while working with the local hotels in order to combat human trafficking and sex crime," said Andover Police Department Det. Sgt. Mark Higginbottom.

"We plan to make these types of meetings a recurring event,'' he said.