Howard County will receive more than $1 million in grant money over the next three years from the U.S. Department of Justice to combat human trafficking within the county.

The funding, provided through the Office for Victims of Crime programs at the Department of Justice, will be split among the Department of Community Resources and Services, the Howard County Police Department and HopeWorks of Howard County, the county’s Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center.

At a news conference Wednesday, County Executive Calvin Ball announced the funding and said it will be used to proactively identify more vulnerable residences and victims of sex and labor trafficking, serve more survivors with services, raise community awareness and bring more traffickers to justice.

“This opportunity is the right time for us to operationalize [a] local human trafficking task force,” Ball said Wednesday. “It will allow us to grow our efforts and take our work to the next level while saving lives.”

The announcement comes after police made 11 human trafficking arrests and identified 24 adult victims and three juvenile victims in the past year, according to Ball. Just last month, Howard County police arrested and charged a Baltimore man with human trafficking at an Jessup hotel.

Police Chief Lisa Myers, who also spoke at the news conference, said the funding would allow the police department to add an additional position to the human trafficking team, as well as enhance training and