(The Center Square) – Colorado saw “peak levels” for human trafficking in 2025 even without complete data for the year, a new analysis warns.
The analysis by Common Sense Institute Colorado uses data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. But the institute said the state’s data is undercounted due to data-entry lag, noting 2025 human trafficking numbers could end up exceeding record levels from 2023.
Colorado saw a record-high 107 human trafficking counts in 2023 and 88 in 2024, according to FBI data. CSI said the state ranked 13th in the nation in 2024 for highest number of trafficking cases.
CBI’s preliminary data shows 110 human trafficking crimes took place last year, but that number could change.
“CBI’s data for 2025, however, is incomplete, as there is a 30-day data entry lag for previous months,” CSI said in its analysis. “As figures are finalized, the 2025 count may remain at 110 or climb higher.”
CSI also noted there is typically a slight variation between the FBI and CBI in their total counts of human trafficking crimes.
According to CSI criminal justice fellow Mitch Morrissey, a former Denver district attorney, one reason for the increase is law enforcement is “better at recognizing situations that are human trafficking and not domestic violence or some other crime.”
“Another explanation for the increase in numbers is that law enforcement is more proactive when it comes to uncovering sex traffickers and the consumers of this type of youth exploitation,” he told The Center Square in an email. “An investigator can go online in a chat room posing as a young female and be propositioned by an adult male within minutes.”
The Colorado counties with the highest human trafficking crimes last year were Adams (37 cases), El Paso (17) and Denver (16).
“The Denver metro area has always been a hub for the trafficking of illegal contraband because of the intersection of I-25 and I-70,” Morrissey said. “The illegal products, including trafficked victims, come into Denver and then are dispersed to other parts of the country.”
CSI also found that state data dating back to 2008 shows 60% of human trafficking victims have been under age 18. In 2025, 48 victims were under 18.
A spokesperson for the CBI told The Center Square in an email that agents use “a variety of approaches to address the many complex components of these crimes.”
“These include participation in large-scale multijurisdictional investigations in the metropolitan areas of Colorado, assisting law enforcement jurisdictions in smaller communities with efforts to combat child sex trafficking and exploitation, and operations devoted to the recovery of sex trafficking victims to provide resources for getting out of that life,” CBI Strategic Communications Director Rob Low said.
“CBI Special Agents also engage in community outreach to bring attention to the dangers of human trafficking, as well as educate law enforcement officers in smaller jurisdictions, who are not yet accustomed to detecting the signs of sex trafficking in their communities,” he added.
