How to Report Suspected Human Trafficking in Texas: Who to Call & What to Say

Why most people who notice never report

The hard part of reporting trafficking is rarely the phone call. It is the thirty seconds before it, when a reasonable person talks themselves out of it. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s a family thing. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble. I don’t even know who you call for this.

That last one is fixable in two minutes, and fixing it dissolves most of the others. You are not being asked to be certain. You are not being asked to accuse anyone. You are being asked to hand what you observed to people trained to decide what it means. Once you know exactly which door to knock on, the hesitation gets a lot smaller.

The three channels, and when to use each

911 is for immediacy. If you believe someone is in physical danger or being moved against their will while you watch, do not open a website. Call.

iWatchTexas is the reporting system the Texas Attorney General points the public to for suspected trafficking that is not an emergency. It routes your tip to law enforcement. This is the right channel for the slow-burn pattern: the worker who never seems to leave the business, the same adult always answering for a younger person, the van that drops off a group at odd hours.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline is oriented toward victims and survivors — connecting a person with services, shelter, and support. If someone confides in you, or you want to give a person a number they can call themselves, this is it. Texas officials point victim services here and tips to iWatchTexas; knowing that split is half the battle.

Channels and numbers above are drawn from the Texas Attorney General’s human trafficking pages and Texas DPS public guidance, current as of October 2026. Confirm on those official sites before relying on them.

What to write down

A good report is made of observations, not conclusions. “I think he’s a trafficker” gives an investigator nothing to work with. “Tuesday around 9 p.m., a gray minivan, partial plate, dropped off three women who did not speak and did not carry bags” gives them a lot. Capture, as soon as you safely can:

• Where — address, business name, or the nearest cross streets.
• When — dates and times, including whether it has happened more than once.
• Who — physical descriptions: approximate age, height, hair, clothing, anything distinctive.
• Vehicles — make, model, color, and as much of the license plate as you saw.
• What specifically — the exact behavior that caught your attention, in plain words.

Do it promptly. The Attorney General’s guidance is blunt that fresher information is more likely to lead to action.

The three things never to do

1. Don’t confront. The Texas Attorney General describes human traffickers as some of the most violent offenders in the state. Approaching one yourself can endanger you, and it can get a victim moved or punished before anyone arrives.

2. Don’t try to rescue. The instinct is decent and the outcome is often bad. Victims may be under threat, controlled through debt or family, or simply not ready to trust a stranger. Your job is to put trained responders on the scene, not to become one.

3. Don’t wait for proof. Certainty is the investigator’s job. If the pattern has your attention, report what you saw and let the professionals sort the rest.

Knowing the number isn’t the same as being ready

Most trafficking awareness material treats reporting as a footnote: a hotline number on the last slide, after a wall of definitions, behind a timer you cannot skip. You pass the quiz, and a year later you could not say which number was for what or what to write down.

That is backwards. Recognition and reporting are the whole point, and both are skills you rehearse, not facts you memorize. CortovaAlert is built around that idea: filmed and animated scenarios where you practice noticing the pattern, choosing the right channel, and capturing the details that matter — so the sequence is already in your head when the moment is real. Difficult subjects can be simplified to be understood.

CortovaAlert is pending approval by the certifying organization; enrollment opens on approval. The numbers above work today, for anyone.