Police swarmed the BNB Bank in Bridgehampton Thursday after a report that something was ticking from within a safe deposit box, though it was later determined not to be a threat, Suffolk County police said.

Police received a report of "ticking inside a box" inside the bank at 4:19 p.m., according to Southampton Town Police Sgt. Steve Miller. The branch, located on the corner of Montauk Highway and Snake Hollow Road, was already closed when the call came through. Formerly known as Bridgehampton National Bank, it is now BNB Bank's main office.

The Suffolk County bomb squad was called in to assist town police with the investigation at 5:20 p.m., a county police spokeswoman said. Officers found only jewelry inside the box.

"It was unfounded," Sergeant Miller said from town police headquarters on Thursday evening. 

The scene was cleared around nightfall. 

Officials at BNB Bank could not be immediately reached for a comment.

Four million dollars of Southampton Town’s community preservation fund will be used to buy restrictive use and historic preservation easements on the Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center, the town board resolved on Tuesday.

The easements mandate that the property remains an arts center in ­perpetuity, and require that the building’s exterior, including its iconic neon Sag Harbor sign, remain unchanged unless approved by the town. Retail space in the building will be limited to 25 percent of its total square footage, and ticket prices must be capped at 80 percent of the average price of local movie tickets. Also, the town will have the right of first refusal if the property is put up for sale.

The C.P.F. money will provide a significant financial boost for the Sag Harbor Partnership, the organization that bought the movie theater site for $8 million after the building was largely destroyed by fire in December 2016. For nearly two years, the partnership has been in fund-raising mode, first to amass the money for the purchase, which was completed in early January, and later to meet construction costs, which it has estimated at $6 million.

Prior to the town board’s unanimous vote, a public hearing was held on the resolution, during which Nick Gazzolo, president of the Sag Harbor Partnership, maintained that the town’s investment in the cinema center would benefit the village’s entire economy. “We had an independent economic impact study done, and their analysis said that the cinema would bring $9.6 million a year to the rest of Main Street. It really is about all of Main Street for us,” he said.

Susan Mead, the partnership’s treasurer, said the $4 million would help the facility launch on a firm financial footing, with no debt and with enough money to hire a staff.

Allen Kopelson, the architect of the center, provided an update on the construction. “The front of the building will be up in about three weeks,” he said, adding that the facade will look exactly as it did before the fire, as will the Art Deco neon sign, which has recently been restored. “One thing that we will be missing is the aroma,” Mr. Kopelson said, referring to a notorious moldy smell that permeated the old space.

A few members of the public, including Robert Anrig, chairman of the town’s C.P.F. advisory board, spoke in opposition to the resolution. Mr. Anrig said that his board had voted unanimously against it, on the grounds that the purchase of the commercial and historic easements were not appropriate uses for the fund and would set a dangerous precedent.

Announcing his vote in favor of 

the resolution, Jay Schneiderman, Southampton Town supervisor, said the purchase was “not just an appropriate use of C.P.F. funds, but an excellent use of C.P.F. funds.” Dedicating money for community preservation is not just about retaining open space, he said, but also about protecting a community’s character through historic preservation. “We probably don’t spend enough on historic preservation,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “I think it’s money very well spent, and by the way, it doesn’t break the bank — we still have money left over for other properties.”

With the temperature dropping, fire officials are warning homeowners to have their chimneys cleaned before they light a fire.

Last Thursday evening, one East Hampton homeowner found that out the hard way. The East Hampton Fire Department was called to 16 Prospect Boulevard in Northwest at 7:40 p.m. after the room filled with smoke. The homeowner removed some of the excess burning wood — which Chief Gerard Turza cautions against doing — and ran outside with it, at which point he saw flames coming out of the chimney.  

Firefighters found flames and embers coming from the top of the chimney, said Chief Turza. They used ladders to access the roof and extinguished the fire, then used a special brush to clear the chimney of excess creosote, which had built up along its lining.

Meanwhile, “a team of firefighters inside the house covered furniture with tarps and moved belongings while extinguishing the remains of the evening fire in the fireplace,” Chief Turza said. 

Damage was contained to the chimney cap, he said. There were no injuries, either to the homeowner or the firefighters.

“We’d like to remind homeowners to have their fireplaces and chimneys cleaned and inspected prior to using them, as the weather is changing,” Chief Turza said. The National Fire Protection Association recommends having chimneys, fireplaces, and vents inspected once a year. 

East Hampton firefighters put out another blaze on Monday evening, this time a car fire on Queens Lane, near East Hampton Drive. The passenger compartment of an older model Mercedes sport utility vehicle was fully engulfed in flames when they responded to the 9:20 p.m. alarm. The driver reported smelling smoke and seeing flames in the Mercedes before pulling over.

Firefighters made quick work of the blaze, Chief Turza said. The East Hampton Town Fire Marshal’s office investigated the cause, which was said to be a cigarette. No injuries were reported.

The first two of six Willem de Kooning works discovered earlier this year in a storage container in Northern New Jersey went on the auction block on Sunday in Manhattan.

"Untitled II," an oil on paper work which measures 65 by 43 inches, achieved a final price of $1.2 million with a 20-percent buyers premium added. A 29-by-22-inch oil paint on newspaper drawing listed as "Untitled I" was purchased by Mark Borghi, a dealer with galleries in New York, Bridgehampton, and Palm Beach at a final price of $72,000 after the buyer's premium. 

The two works were sold by the David Killen auction gallery. They were part of a collection of art objects found in the Orrin Riley Studio storage unit, which Mr. Killen purchased this year for $15,000. Mr. Riley and his partner Susanne Schnitzer ran a successful conservation business in New York City. One of its specialties was modern and contemporary art.

After a nine-year effort by the New York State attorney general's office to restore the artwork left in the storage unit to its owners, the remaining works were declared abandoned and cleared to be sold.

Lawrence Castagna, a conservator, was asked to restore the work and agreed with Mr. Killen that the art was by de Kooning. Mr. Castagna had worked for Mr. Riley earlier in his career and was also a studio assistant to de Kooning in the 1980s. He continues to live in Springs and has his own restoration business there.

He told The Star in July, "Anyone who knows anything about de Kooning wouldn't deny what they were." The six works are unsigned, which is not unusual.

There are four other art works remaining, two more larger-format paintings on paper and two more paintings on newsprint. They will go on sale Nov. 11 and Dec. 9, with a small work paired with a larger work as on Sunday. Mr. Killen has given estimates of the value of the works ranging from $10,000 to $10 million, but has also said those were very loose valuations. 

Mr. Castagna previously said that the newsprint drawings were the result of the artist cleaning his brushes when he finished his work for the day in his studio. He would set old newspapers on the floor and run the brushes over them. "People who came to his studio said they liked the resulting images and he would give them away." They are now fetching prices in the range of $60,000 to $80,000. The auction house's conservative pre-sale estimate for both works sold on Sunday was $2,000 to $3,000. There were many bids on both.

Mr. Killen has received confirming opinions as to the works' validity from two sources, Mr. Castagna and an expert he hired who he said wished to remain anonymous. Their provenance also works in their favor. Yet, there remains some question of authenticity that may never be answered definitely. De Kooning does not have a catalogue raisonne, a complete list of works that scholars and his foundation have agreed are by the artist's hand. The artist's foundation also declines to authenticate work.

An earlier version of this story mentioned only one of the two works sold on Sunday, "Untitled I," and omitted its purchaser and the buyers premiums.

A fire at the Springs School on Monday morning — Columbus Day, when classes were not in session — started with an overloaded power strip, according to the East Hampton Town fire marshal’s office.

An alarm went off at the school at about 7:30 a.m., prompting an investigation by the chief of the Springs Fire Department. A custodian had found heavy smoke in the fifth-grade science room, Dwayne Denton, a fire marshal, said on Tuesday. The chief called in firefighters at 7:46 a.m., and they quickly extinguished the blaze. 

Mr. Denton said a power strip had been overloaded with plugs, from a 175-gallon fish tank’s filter and pump to lights. It was melted and charred, and there was also damage to a cabinet that the fish tank was sitting on.

While the damage was minimal, the incident served as a good reminder, especially during National Fire Prevention Week, to use power strips properly. 

“Know your power strip,” Mr. Denton said. Power strips, which are extension cords with multiple outlets, have amperage ratings on the back that should be heeded. Most home-rated power strips can be used by devices than require less than the 15 or 20 amp rating, like cellphones or computers. 

Plugging high-voltage items not intended for ancillary power sources can cause a fire hazard. Refrigerators, microwave ovens, and space heaters should never be plugged into power strips, Mr. Denton warned. He recommended looking for strips that have a “UL Listed” mark, meaning that they meet requirements from Underwriters Laboratories, a global safety consulting and certification company. 

Also, not all power strips are surge protectors, though many people use them as such, which can lead to a costly loss of electronics during a power surge, he said. Power strips merely distribute electricity; they do not regulate power flow or prevent electrical surges.

Debra Winter, the Springs School superintendent, said she had not received a final report from the fire marshal's office or the school's insurance adjuster and could not comment on the cause. "Certainly we were very lucky that no one was in the building at the time and that our custodian who lives local, Eric Drew, immediately responded, as did the Springs Fire Department," she said in an email on Wednesday afternoon. "The fact that all our classroom doors are always closed also helped."

"Our custodians immediately checked all surge protectors to ensure they had UL labels as did the one in question," she continued. "They removed any that were not UL certified." She said the school passed its fire inspection in September.

"School was in session on Tuesday," Ms. Winter said, with the science classes meeting in other classrooms until the cleanup is complete.

While free on bail and awaiting sentencing on a conspiracy charge related to an August drug bust in Montauk, Kevin L. Becker, 30, was arrested on a felony drunken-driving charge on Friday.

East Hampton Town police said they saw Mr. Becker driving a 2016 Chevrolet Silverado east on Montauk Highway in Montauk at about 1 a.m., when he failed to keep right. When stopped, he appeared intoxicated and performed poorly on field sobriety tests, police said. A check with the State Department of Motor Vehicles showed he had two previous driving-while-intoxicated convictions, the first in October 2010 in East Hampton and the second in April of 2015 elsewhere in Suffolk County. He was turned over to the Suffolk County sheriff’s office after being arraigned by East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky. 

Mr. Becker was among 17 men charged in Montauk on Aug. 15 as part of a major cocaine ring by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s East End Drug Task Force. He was charged with conspiracy in the second degree and was released after his family posted $10,000 bail. He remained free following his arraignment in Suffolk County Criminal Court on Aug. 28, online records show. He pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy in the fourth degree, a felony, that day and is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 31.  

Sag Harbor Village police charged a driver with felony drunken driving on Friday. Jefferson P. Pulla Duchitanga, 22, of Sag Harbor was arrested at 2:05 p.m. following an accident. Police said they received a report that a white pickup truck had hit a parked vehicle and was headed south on Hampton Street. While officers searched the area, they received another call that a truck fitting the description was driving erratically north on Hampton Street. Officers found a 2014 Toyota Tacoma swerving in and out of the shoulder, they said, stopping the vehicle near Walker Avenue. Police said they realized immediately that he was intoxicated. 

Mr. Pulla Duchitanga had been convicted of D.W.I. in August of 2017 and his driving privileges were still revoked. He was also supposed to have an Interlock device if he got his license back. 

He was charged with felony D.W.I., aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, also a felony, leaving the scene of an accident, a violation, and two traffic infractions. He was held on $7,500 cash or $15,000 bond. 

Village police also arrested Jasmin E. Flores, 21, of East Hampton on Sunday. Police said they saw a 2004 Jeep Liberty heading east on Hampton Street when the driver failed to maintain her lane and drove onto the shoulder. An officer stopped her vehicle at 262 Hampton Street and said she appeared drunk. She was arrested at 1:36 a.m. and charged with misdemeanor D.W.I. She was released on her own recognizance following arraignment.

On Monday, Svitlana Zhukovska, 29, of Brooklyn was arrested on a misdemeanor aggravated driving-while-intoxicated charge in East Hampton. A report from town police said she was driving west on Pantigo Road, near Pantigo Place, in a 2016 Honda at about 1:25 a.m., when she swerved over the fog line. Her blood alcohol level was allegedly above .18, which led to the aggravated D.W.I. misdemeanor charge. East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana released her on her own recognizance.

A fire broke out on the roof of a house in the Landfall section of Northwest Woods in East Hampton last Thursday after workers from an unlicensed company, doing renovations without a building permit, burned construction debris in a fireplace.

East Hampton Town police and fire departments responded to a report of smoke at 29 Hedges Banks Drive just before 8:55 a.m. The first police officer to arrive said flames were coming from the roof, near the chimney. Fire Chief Gerard Turza Jr. said there was heavy smoke in the house and the fire was venting from the roof. 

Four men, two of whom gave addresses in Queens, were outside when police arrived. They said they were renovating the house and had started a fire in the fireplace the night before to burn the debris.

Dwayne Denton, an East Hampton Town fire marshal who investigated the cause with Fire Marshal Tom Baker, said the workers put the fire out at around 9 or 10 p.m. without realizing there was a chimney cap. The fire smoldered on the rubberized roof all night before the men noticed smoke and called 911. 

Firefighters began what Chief Turza described as an “aggressive interior and exterior attack” and put out the blaze within 15 minutes of the first engines’ arrival. They remained on scene until 11 a.m. to conduct “an extensive overhaul, as the house was undergoing various stages of renovation work.” 

The damage was contained to half the house, the chief said, though there was extensive damage to the roof and living room area. Mr. Denton said the roof burned out about 8 to 10 feet from the chimney and down into the joists. 

A town police report identified the construction company as Selmani Brothers Inc., owned by Nedzad Salmanovic, who came to the house that day to pick up his workers. The company is based in Flushing, Queens. The fire marshal’s office, however, declined to name the owner, due to pending charges. Mr. Denton did confirm that the company is not licensed in the Town of East Hampton.

There was also no building permit for the work, he said. The homeowner, whom he identified as Tracey Stein of New York City, was aware of the work being done, he said. Police reported that the workers had permission to stay overnight at the residence, but Mr. Denton did not say whether they had actually done so. Ms. Stein could not be reached for comment.

There was no Dumpster on the property, Mr. Denton said, leading his office to believe the construction company was trying to avoid carting the debris 

away. Pieces of Sheetrock, lumber, and garbage such as food wrappers, had been burned in the fireplace. 

The fire marshal’s office said it was illegal to burn construction debris. “It’s not healthy, first of all,” Mr. Denton said, noting that plastics and paper are light  and are more likely to start an accidental fire. 

When Chief Turza arrived and saw the heavy smoke, he requested immediate assistance from the Sag Harbor Fire Department’s rapid intervention team, which is used to rescue interior firefighters should they encounter a problem. However, because East Hampton firefighters arrived and got to work so quickly, Sag Harbor was called off en route. The Springs Fire Department stood by at the East Hampton firehouse in case the department received any other calls. 

The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association also responded, to monitor the firefighters inside the house. Altogether, about 75 firefighters were on the scene. No injuries were reported.

Qualifications to Register to Vote:

Be a United States citizen;

Be 18 years old by December 31 of the year in which you file this form (note: you must be 18 years old by the date of the general, primary or other election in which you want to vote);

Resident of this state and the county for at least 30 days before the election;

Not be in prison or on parole for a felony conviction (unless parolee pardoned or restored rights of citizenship);

Not be adjudged mentally incompetent by a court;

Not claim the right to vote elsewhere.

How and Where to Register to Vote (Deadlines):

You can register in person at your county board of elections or at any New York State Agency-Based voter registration center.

You may also submit your voter application form at the Department of Motor Vehicles, either in person or on their web site if you already have DMV-issued identification.

You can request a New York State Voter Registration form by mail by entering your name directly into our mailing list database.

You can call 1-800-FOR-VOTE hotline to request a voter application.

New York State Voter Registration Form

You may register to vote using the New York State Voter Registration Form accessible at the links below. You can complete a PDF version of the New York State Voter Registration Form by clicking on the link below, typing the necessary information and selecting the appropriate boxes and putting it in the mail. Alternatively, you can print the form to complete by hand.

New York State Voter Registration Form

Formulario de Registro de Rotantes del Estado de Nueva York

The voter registration form should be used as a change of address form. Notices of change of address from registered voters received at least 20 days before a special, primary or general election by a county board of elections must be processed and entered in the records in time for that election.

In Suffolk, printed and signed forms must be mailed to Suffolk County Board of Elections, Yaphank Ave., P. O. Box 700Yaphank, NY 11980

Change of Party Enrollment:

The voter registration form should be used to change your party enrollment from one party to another or to enroll for the first time in a party. A change of enrollment received no later than 25 days before the general election shall be deposited in a sealed enrollment box and opened the first Tuesday following that general election and entered in the voter's registration record. Please see Deadlines referenced above.

Victims of Domestic Violence

N.Y. Election Law (5-508) allows victims of domestic violence who obtain a court order from NY Supreme Court, Family Court or County Court in the county where they are registered to have their voter registration record kept separate and apart from other registration records and not be made available for inspection or copying by the public or any other person, except election officials acting within the course and scope of their official duties. Under a separate section of the law (11-306), you can also be excused from going to your polling place to vote and get a special ballot. For further information, you should contact your local board of elections for their confidential registration and special ballot procedures.

A Bridgehampton teen was arrested in East Hampton Saturday night in connection with a threat of violence to be carried out at the Southampton High School Homecoming after-party.

Southampton Village officials said in a press release Sunday morning that a student alerted school security to a post on Snapchat of "three males in a vehicle posing with what appeared to be an AR-15 assault rifle and stating 'pull up to after homecoming SH,' while brandishing the weapon" at about 9:25 p.m. 

There were about 110 students at the party at the school on Narrow Lane, police said.

The security personnel called village police at 9:34 p.m. Officers placed the school on "lockout," which mean no one could enter or leave the building until the threat could be properly assessed. 

More than 20 officers, including New York State police and Southampton Town police, equipped with AR-15 rifles and two K-9 units assisted village police in securing the perimeter around the campus and closed off the entire street. 

Students were released to their families under the supervision of police and school security without any issues, and the building and street were reopened by about 10:50 p.m., police said. 

Meanwhile, an investigation led police to Oakview Highway in East Hampton, where they arrested Kevin S. Chavez, a 19-year-old who lives in Bridgehampton, at 11:56 p.m. 

Police also recovered a replica AR-15, which turned out to be a Sig Sauer Airgun, at a residence off Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton. "This is the weapon that Mr. Chavez threatened to use via Snapchat," Detective Sgt. Herman Lamison said in the press release. 

Mr. Chavez was charged with falsely reporting an incident in the third degree, a misdemeanor. He was released from police custody with an appearance ticket. He was then transported to Stony Brook University Hospital for a psychological evaluation, according to police. 

The investigation is continuing. Police have urged anyone with additional information to contact Southampton Village police at 631-283-0056.

The Princess Diner at the intersection of Route 27 and Hampton Road in Southampton was once a bustling restaurant, but it now sits forlorn, with crabgrass sprouting from cracks in the empty parking lot.

Just a few miles to the west, on the Shinnecock Reservation, a faded red dress dangles from a hanger on a tree near the Peace Fire tribal members keep, and another weather-beaten red dress is slung over a picket fence outside a private house.

The back stories and symbolism that connect these places may not be obvious at first glance — but they prompted Paula Bess Collins, a longtime officer and activist of the Shinnecock Nation, to act after attending an upstate tribal summit that included a seminar on human trafficking about a year and a half ago. Ms. Collins was determined to spread the message.

“You think you know something about what’s going on in Indian country and the country in general,” Ms. Collins said last week, “but when I went to that tribal summit and heard some of these people speak, I was just blown away. Most of us think of human trafficking as something that’s happening across foreign borders. But it’s happening right here, right under our noses — sex trafficking, labor trafficking. I was told this area is supposedly one of the major areas for filming porn. I never knew that.”

Ms. Collins said people at the Princess Diner “were not being paid for their work. They were being treated like slaves. Some of them were not here legally, so who were they going to call? The police? And the red-dress movement, that was started [elsewhere] as a way to remember our missing and murdered indigenous women. There are hundreds and hundreds of indigenous women missing, not just Indian women, but Latina women and immigrant women. Often no one is even looking for them or investigating.”

“This is 2018,” Ms. Collins added, “and this is happening like it’s the 1800s or something.”

Ms. Collins was motivated to help stage a symposium called “Human Trafficking on Long Island, Identify and Respond” last Thursday and the next day at Stony Brook University in Southampton. The event was hosted by the Shinnecock Nation and 11 other sponsors, including Organizacion Latino-Americano of Eastern Long Island, the Retreat domestic violence agency, the  Substance Abuse Mobilization Project, and four churches.

The lead presenters both days were Jeri Moomaw and Roxanne White, Native American women from Washington State who are trafficking and assault survivors. Ms. Moomaw is now executive director of the Innovations Human Trafficking Collaboration, and Ms. White is the organization’s indigenous outreach coordinator.

The two-hour session Thursday night was free and open to the public. Friday’s daylong program was more intensive and required registration. It was designed for professionals in law enforcement, social services, advocacy organizations, educators, and medical and mental health workers. Attendees received training and learned strategies for combating human trafficking — a term organizers defined as “modern-day slavery that involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.” 

According to annual statistics compiled by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, New York typically ranks among the top states for human trafficking. Experts estimate that globally sex and labor trafficking is a $155 billion industry.

Here in Suffolk County, the Police Department announced on July 30 that a permanent 10-member Human Trafficking Task Force had been established. Before then, the task force had operated as an unannounced pilot program until March, about a month after Richard Bivona, the owner of the Princess Diner, and John Kalogeras, the manager, pleaded guilty to failing to pay 23 restaurant workers and scheming to defraud them of more than $132,000.

County officials said that by the end of July the task force’s investigative unit had helped free 37 victims of trafficking and made 19 felony arrests on 47 charges. Nine others were indicted on 50 counts of promoting prostitution and 75 counts of sex trafficking, as well as other crimes. 

“We changed our approach dramatically,” Geraldine Hart, the Suffolk police commissioner, said, explaining that law enforcement here views prostitutes as victims rather than criminals if they were coerced into the trade. 

The same philosophy is used for labor trafficking whether or not victims are in this country legally, Christiana McSloy, chief of the Suffolk County district attorney’s Enhanced Prosecution Bureau, told the Stony Brook audience Friday. “We will work with victims and witnesses regardless of their legal status to help them get the services they need,” Ms. McSloy said.

On Long Island, some trafficking rings are run by organized crime and gangs such as the MC-13s and Bloods, and nobody thinks the problem is close to being solved. A challenge for case workers and victims is that officials may not be trained in trauma-informed engagement techniques or how to recognize telltale signs of human trafficking. A recurring theme at the symposium was that human trafficking remains a hidden crime because victims fear their traffickers, fear law enforcement, fear they won’t be believed, or fear they cannot summon the resources to function on their own. Language barriers can also play a role.

 In addition, victims often have no legal documents and may be unwilling to answer even simple questions like where they live. Health-care workers say victims may exhibit shaken self-esteem, extreme timidity, symptoms of anxiety, depression, P.T.S.D., and suicide attempts. They may put off medical or dental care or show up in a hospital emergency room battered and bruised. People who are labor trafficked often tolerate unsafe or inhumane work and living conditions. Sex traffickers and pimps sometimes even brand their captives with tattoos of dollar signs, bar codes, or profane messages.

“I worked with a woman once who had an A.T.M. tattooed on the inside of her thigh,” Ms. Moomaw said. “This is big business. Never approach a trafficker yourself.”

Victims can be anyone — men and women, girls and boys. Traffickers often target society’s weakest targets: runaways, the homeless, people trying to escape unsafe situations, undocumented residents needing work, and people hooked on alcohol or drugs. Many victims also are already survivors of abuse or dysfunctional families. As Ms. White, who grew up on a reservation, said: “Everyone around me seemed hurt. I thought that’s just how life is. My mom’s dad hung himself in jail. My first memory is being abducted and sexually assaulted at age 4.”

On top of all that, said Minerva Perez, executive director of OLA, Latinos and other immigrant groups face an elevated fear of deportation and the breakup of families, especially since the Trump administration took over in 2016. “The message out there right now, especially in the immigrant community, is really, really dark,” Ms. Perez said. “And the levels of exploitation right now are very high.”

At last week’s symposium, it was said that there are undocumented immigrants who need dialysis to stay alive but only surface for emergency room treatment to keep their names out of databases where authorities might find them. There was an account of a Native American woman running a brothel to which she took four of her daughters and one of her nieces. Two of her daughters hanged themselves before she was murdered.

But the Stony Brook attendees also heard stirring stories of lives turned around, victims who sought help, and people who intervened and made a difference.

Like Ms. Moomaw and Ms. White, every symposium speaker stressed that tackling human trafficking requires consistent, determined collaboration across agencies, professions, communities, and across the personal networks of those willing to help. It requires, they said, helping victims trust that real help is available. And they provided the number of the National Human Trafficking Hotline — 888-373-7888.

The human trafficking problem may be hiding in plain sight, but Ms. Perez told the audience antidotes are, too. “Once you identify the victims, the next steps you take are huge,” Ms. Perez said. “We have to look at this very locally. On a granular level. It’s going to be these local networks and the relationships that you create that are going to save lives. It’s how we can get these people the help they need.”