In 2019 Montana created a specific agency was created to combat both labor and human trafficking.
Andrew Yedinak the supervisory agent within the Montana DOJ human trafficking unit explains more.
“Montana back in 2019 is when we got on the books if you will as far as trying to combat human trafficking. There were folks in the state doing it, some at the federal level, some at the local level, but there wasn’t a unified front at the state level until 2019. In that legislative session we were afforded the opportunity to put two agents to focus specifically on human trafficking, and since then we’ve had the same two agents. What we did in the last year to strengthen our bandwidth a little bit is we partnered those two agents with federal agencies. So, they are task force officers with those agencies, meaning they get federal credentials, and they have federal authority. What it does is gives the assistance of those offices and a little bit more man power to assist our guys and their investigations.”-Andrew Yedinak
Andrew Yedinak continues to explain what is being worked on this legislative session regarding human trafficking in Montana.
“So, this has been a big legislative session in terms of human trafficking. Some of the big things that we’re trying to get done is of course add manpower, two agents for the entire state is just simply not enough. We’re also hoping to get a victim advocate for the Department of Justice that is something that we currently don’t have, somebody to fill that gap between law enforcement and the victims. We’re trying to restructure some of the laws for the state, enhance some penalties, clear up the statutes. The statutes right now for human trafficking are a little bit all over the place. So, we’re trying to bring them under one umbrella, and call them what they are. They have confusing titles, and so those are the main things that we’re looking to do.” -Andrew Yedinak
