The number of potential victims is up slightly over last year’s report. But the state’s human trafficking coordinator, Elizabeth Ranade-Janis, says there’s a detail that explains that.

“It absolutely is the case that increased awareness yields more people being helped.”

Ranade-Janis says it’s estimated more than a thousand kids are being trafficked in Ohio at any time. There were more than 100 investigations in the last year: a third resulted in criminal convictions. Most of these were suspected sex trafficking cases, but six victims were thought to be victims of labor trafficking.