Last month, the Sun reported on the problem of human trafficking in Santa Barbara County, where two convictions in recent years have exposed the tip of an iceberg of issues surrounding the sex trafficking of minors.
On Sept. 29, the county came a little closer to effectively tackling those issues when the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) awarded $1.34 million to the county to help fund its Human Trafficking Task Force.
The Department of Homeland Security describes human trafficking as “modern-day slavery” wherein force, fraud, or coercion is used to obtain labor or a commercial sex act. In Santa Barbara County, human trafficking often involves the pimping of minors. A 2015 Santa Barbara County District Attorney report on domestic child sex trafficking identified 45 confirmed child survivors of sex trafficking in the county, 43 of whom were Santa Barbara County residents.
The county’s Human Trafficking Task Force, established in 2013, aims to “convene stakeholders, assess the local problem, increase public awareness, and develop and implement effective strategies” to deal with human trafficking in Santa Barbara County, according to a news release from the District Attorney’s and Sheriff’s offices. The task force includes participants from local and federal law enforcement, behavioral wellness, faith organizations, child welfare services, and health care providers.
Sheriff’s Office Lt. Brian Olmstead told the Sun in September that though the task force has been successful in conducting a human trafficking sting, the operation was taxing and required many resources. The DOJ grant could help make more such operations feasible in the future, with $740,737 going to local law enforcement and $600,000 going to the District Attorney’s Victim-Witness Assistance Program.
“The funding will provide the investigative resources necessary to proactively investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases,” the news release said. “In addition, this funding will enable victim and rape crisis advocates to provide victim services 24/7. This will better allow them to deliver critical services for both adult and minor domestic and international trafficking victims.”
The funding will also contribute to the task force’s initial goals to collect, share, and analyze data on human trafficking.
This article appears in Oct 6-13, 2016.