An Unseen Issue

Human trafficking is a pervasive issue in the hospitality industry, often hidden in plain sight. Eighty percent of those affected are recovered from hotels and motels, according to the Polaris Project, a nonprofit working to prevent the crime in North America.

In September 2019 Associate Lecturer Jessica Wickey Byrd ’13 ’24EdD and 200 UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management students listened intently as representatives from United Abolitionists, an anti-trafficking organization, described the grim reality in the hospitality field.

At the end of the hourlong session, Wickey Byrd asked how many students thought they may have witnessed trafficking in their workplace. Thirty students raised their hands.

One student approached Wickey Byrd and Rosen College Instructor Gisele Canova ’17MS afterward, recounting a personal experience in which she believed she was about to be trafficked. This compelled the instructors to take meaningful action.

Determined to make a difference, in 2020, they launched a curriculum that educates every Rosen College undergraduate student on their role as hospitality leaders in preventing trafficking. This initiative also led Wickey Byrd to work with UCF’s Center for the Study of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, where she now serves as executive director.

Florida ranks third in the nation for reported cases of trafficking, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. The state’s booming tourism industry is a major contributing factor. That’s why Wickey Byrd and the center’s team are using education, research and artificial intelligence (AI) to help reduce the number of cases.

An AI-Powered Solution

With nearly 50 million people trafficked worldwide, innovative solutions are essential. To achieve this, Wickey Byrd and David Metcalf — an associate research professor in UCF’s School of Modeling, Simulation and Training, and director of its Mixed Emerging Technology Integration Lab — are harnessing AI to develop tools that can identify and dismantle trafficking operations.

One such tool is Dark Watch, an app developed by tech entrepreneur Noel Thomas in partnership with the UCF Business Incubator Program and the university’s Institute for Simulation and Training. Proven effective for military and law enforcement, Dark Watch uses AI-driven tech to detect traffickers through digital transactions, a commonly used payment method. The data is linked to mapping technology, allowing law enforcement to locate traffickers and rescue victims.

A major benefit of the app is its ability to quickly complete tasks that would typically take a workforce hours to perform, Metcalf says.

“Combining a law enforcement app that brings many databases, tracking sites and a firewall together provides situational awareness and intelligence, and creates a more holistic solution,”
Metcalf says.

Educating the Industry

UCF’s efforts align with Florida’s broader push to combat human trafficking. In 2019 the state passed House Bill 851, requiring hotels to train employees on identifying and reporting human trafficking. Since Wickey Byrd launched her curriculum five years ago, more than 5,700 students have completed training.

Some signs of human trafficking include travelers without luggage, rideshare drivers repeatedly dropping off the same visitors and people avoiding eye contact, she says.

A way hospitality workers could contribute to anti-trafficking measures is through a hotel badging system that certifies employees are trained to identify and report trafficking, Wickey Byrd says. She’s collaborating with United Abolitionists to develop this system.

Multilingual communication is also important in combating the issue. While traveling to New Orleans to work with hospitality students at Super Bowl LIX in 2025, Wickey Byrd says she noticed anti-trafficking signs in both English and Spanish at airports.

“If [sharing] what you know about trafficking [can] help save one person, then [everyone] needs to be talking,” she says.