As landmark legislation heads to the Massachusetts governor’s desk, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley is lending his voice to a human trafficking training video on that issue for municipal police across the Commonwealth.

On Nov. 18, Conley taped an introduction and interview with David O’Laughlin, director of training for the Municipal Police Institute, to prepare Massachusetts law enforcement officers on how to recognize and combat the trafficking in and exploitation of children, teens, and adults for sexual services and forced labor.

Conley is a recognized leader in anti-trafficking efforts, spearheading an aspect of the pending legislation that would treat minors arrested in prostitution cases as victims rather than offenders. That approach to exploited youth stems from a police Conley implemented in 2004 that dismisses criminal charges against exploited youth and instead diverts them to medical and mental health professionals, social service agencies, mentors, and other partners.

“These children aren’t prostituting themselves,” Conley said. “They’re being recruited, coerced, terrorized, and turned out by grown men. Thanks to this training, police in cities and towns across the state are going to be well versed in changes to the law that take this fact into account.”

Working with the Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County, Conley launched a program six years ago that took a radically different approach to commercial sexual exploitation of teens by dismissing criminal prostitution charges against them and referring them to service providers. Now known as Support to End Exploitation Now, or SEEN, the program has twice been named a Top 50 Innovative Government Program by a Harvard University think tank and has received referrals for more than 400 minors exploited through prostitution or believed to be at risk of such exploitation.

“We’ve changed the way these young victims are treated in Suffolk County,” Conley said. “Now it’s time to expand that change across Massachusetts, and the Municipal Police Institute is helping us in cities and towns statewide.”