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Lorain County Commission is exploring the idea of ​​creating a subchapter of Cleveland Missing

Lorain County Commission is exploring the idea of ​​creating a subchapter of Cleveland Missing

Lorain County commissioners on Oct. 25 approved a $449,615 grant agreement for the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office human trafficking program and one of the commissioners floated the idea of ​​creating a subchapter of Cleveland Missing.

The grant agreement is through the Ohio Department of Public Safety and will provide $437,058 for Human Trafficking Task Force salaries and $12,556 for supplies and other expenses, according to county documents.

Sheriff’s Capt. Richard Bosley was present at the commissioners’ meeting to explain the role of the task force, which includes three other counties in a program called HEAL, which stands for Huron, Erie, Ashland and Lorain County Sheriff’s Offices.

“We’re trying to get people out of the trap of human trafficking, regardless of what type of human trafficking it is,” Bosely said.

The purpose of the HEAL program is to identify and remove human trafficking victims from the hands of kidnappers, he said.

Statistics show that many of the victims are arrested multiple times and police never know they are victims of a human trafficking organization, Bosley said.

Part of the program involves working with incarcerated people to sooner or later identify them as victims of human trafficking, he said.

While the grant was awarded to the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office, the agency will administer it and allocate funds to the other three counties, Bosley also said.

Task force members have sought advice from professors at Bowling Green State University and other law enforcement agencies as they continue to build the HEAL program, he said.

Commission Vice Chairman Dave Moore introduced an idea to start a subchapter of Cleveland Missing, a nonprofit organization that assists families with a family member missing.

“I don’t want to create anything new,” Moore said. “They (Cleveland Missing) have a very good program.”

Moore said he would like to start discussing the idea of ​​creating a subchapter within the next two to three months.

He said he recently attended a meeting where several families shared their experiences finding their missing loved ones and how Cleveland Missing helped them in their time of need.

Elizabeth Smart, who was missing for a decade, was among the speakers, as was a Huron County family whose relative was found deceased and the accused killer is charged with murder in Huron County Common Pleas Court.

Moore remembered the event as “very emotional” and “very moving.”

“It was a very emotional meeting,” he says.