Punta Gorda Airport became the first Southwest Florida airport to join the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Transportation’s Blue Lightning Initiative to combat human trafficking by training and educating frontline airport workers. It’s the latest push by area airports over the last decade to combat the growing issue.
The Charlotte County airport’s involvement with the initiative will start with 100 airport authority employees taking part in the training program, with plans to expand the training to the entire airport community, according to Punta Gorda Airport officials. Miami International Airport was the first airport in the state to implement the initiative in November 2020.
Meanwhile, Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers had two days of training in 2015 for Lee County Port Authority employees, in collaboration with Lee County Port Authority Police Department, Florida Gulf Coast University, Southwest Resource Center and the Department of Justice on how to recognize human trafficking and the proper way to report it, Lee County Port Authority Chief Communications & Marketing Officer Victoria Moreland said. The port authority police also work with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Customs and Boarder Protection on continuous training.
To further their education, RSW employees must take part in online training consisting of eight courses, including human trafficking, each year and must post a perfect score on the test following each course to be recertified.
Naples Airport provides training to all employees, focusing on educating employees about human trafficking as well as ways to identify signs of human trafficking and prevention tools, Naples Airport Community Engagement and Communications Manager Zachary Burch said. “The Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Lightning Initiative is something that the Naples Airport Authority is also looking into as we work to further strengthen our human trafficking prevention efforts.”
Gary Duncan, chief operating officer at Punta Gorda Airport, started the process of bringing the Blue Lightning initiative to PGD several months ago with the airport’s commercial carriers, Allegiant Air and Sun Country Airlines, already having established Blue Lightning Initiative partnerships with the Department of Homeland Security. “If we can help stop just one incident, then all the training will be worth our while,” Duncan said.
The online program comprising four 20-minute lessons educates aviation employees on how to recognize the indicators of human trafficking and how to appropriately report what they see. Objectives include expanding training to reach partners in large and small airport settings, improving the training by using specific, scenario-based teaching, and enhancing efforts to get critical counter-trafficking information to employees working in the air and on the ground.
As of March, Blue Lightning Initiative’s 88 partners have trained more than 200,000 aviation industry personnel and actionable tips continue to be reported to federal law enforcement.
