Human trafficking, often making children and women serve as sex slaves, occurs right here in West Virginia and Ohio. As Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., points out, more needs to be done to prevent it.
Local and state authorities play a major role in that, obviously. Often, it is they who make arrests after being tipped off to the presence of human trafficking in their communities.
Such arrests often only nip at the periphery of human trafficking rings, however. Meanwhile, the kingpins remain far away, safely insulated from police.
The problem may be on the upswing in our states, to judge by statistics from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. The NHTRC operates a telephone hotline taking reports about human trafficking throughout the nation.
Since 2007, the NHTRC has dealt with 39 cases of human trafficking in West Virginia. Of that total, nine occurred last year.
Ohio's numbers are even more troubling. There, the NHTRC reports 546 cases since 2007 - with 164 of them last year.
Those cases are just the ones involving the NHTRC. Human trafficking is at the heart of many more arrests, often for prostitution.
Capito is right that the federal government needs to take a lead in battling the evil. Almost always, it involves interstate - often international - crime rings. Federal agencies have both the jurisdiction and the resources to deal with that.
Nevertheless, anti-trafficking bills Capito has co-sponsored provide additional tools for local and federal authorities, specifically to investigate child pornography.
Both Ohio and West Virginia have tightened laws involving human trafficking. Obviously, local and state law enforcement agencies should continue to be alert for it and quick to act when it occurs.
Again, however, Washington holds they key to breaking up the big national and international trafficking rings.
For that reason, measures such as the bills being co-sponsored by Capito should be pursued - and federal agencies should ensure adequate resources are being provided to win the fight.