Sheriff-coroner Department County of Orange California Sandra Hutchens Sheriff-coroner September 14, 2012 Honorable*

Published: September 14, 2012 4 pages

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Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F2, F6

Findings and Recommendations 5 findings

The Human Trafficking Task Force (HTTF) recognized that more law enforcement training is needed in sex trafficking. Response: Agree with Finding. Victims and suspects of sex trafficking are often discovered through various law enforcement activities. Training in the recognition, investigation and documentation of sex trafficking is an important component of effective proactive enforcement. Although members of the Orange County Sheriff's Department's Special Victims Unit, Gang Enforcement Team, Narcotic and Vice Details receive specialized training in sex trafficking, there is a need for more broad based training throughout law enforcement.

Related Recommendations (1)

Police and Sheriff Departments should provide additional training for officers to clarify law enforcement's understanding and awareness of minor sex trafficking of girls. Response: The recommendation has been implemented. The Orange County Sheriff's Department's Training Division has collected information regarding the sex trafficking of girls and has prepared various departmental training. This training material has been implemented in three areas. First, an eight hour block of classroom training is available through the Sheriff's Training Division. Additionally, the training division has placed a fifteen minute human trafficking video on the Sheriff's Intranet, which is accessible to all department employees. And lastly, training materials have been prepared that will be presented at all custody and operations shift briefings. This training will be used to equip all sworn members of the department with the understanding and awareness of this crime. This will allow personnel the ability to more effectively identify child victims of sex trafficking and their pimps. ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT GRAND JURY RESPONSE SEX TRAFFICKING OF GIRLS

Child victims of sex trafficking are often misidentified. Due to the lack of proper identification of the child's age, law enforcement agencies may be unable to charge the trafficker/pimp with child related sex trafficking violations. Response: Agree with Finding. Identifying child victims of any crime in which a parent/guardian is absent is always a challenge to law enforcement. In cases where a child is the victim of sex trafficking, this task is often exacerbated with victims who may be unwilling to assist law enforcement in their identification. This inability to identify child victims of sex trafficking often inhibits the prosecution of suspects and the protection of victims related to the sex trafficking violations.

Related Recommendations (1)

Law enforcement agencies and district attorneys should consider using the provisions of California Penal Code section 1275.1 more frequently if they have cause to believe that the source of bail money for a "pimp" or "john" was illegally obtained. Response: The recommendation has been implemented. The Orange County Sheriff's Department is aware of the provisions afforded in California Penal Code section 1275.1 and often uses those provisions during the arrest of subjects involved in the sales of narcotics and/or any other crime which would most likely result in excessive proceeds from the activity. Sheriff Department personnel will consider the use of Penal Code section 1275.1in all cases regarding the sex trafficking of girls if they have cause to believe the source of bail money was illegally obtained. Additionally, the use of Penal Code section 1275.1 will be included in the upcoming training indicated above.

Trafficked minors often flee non-secure shelters. Law enforcement and prosecutors may request detention of a child to protect them from repeated exploitation by pimps. Response: Agree with Finding. Child victims of sex trafficking often flee non-secured shelters and expose themselves to repeated exploitation by pimps. Victims exhibit this behavior for various reasons including fear of the pimp(s), imputed fear of authority, and fear of losing their relationship with these suspects who provided for their basic needs such as safety, food, and shelter. Also, the pimps often convince the child victim that they are providing for their emotional needs such as love and security. To prevent the trafficked minors from repeated exploitation, law enforcement and prosecutors should have the ability to request their detention. ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT GRAND JURY RESPONSE SEX TRAFFICKING OF GIRLS

No recommendations for this finding

Penal Code section 1275.1 allows the courts to set conditions on bail, including presenting probable cause that the bail money (or the security for the bond) was illegally obtained. This provision allows law enforcement and the courts to hold the perpetrators, which may keep them from intimidating and victimizing young girls once released. Response: Agree with Finding. Sex trafficking of child victims has been proven to be a profitable illegal industry. As cited in the "FACTS" section of the Grand Jury report, victims of sex trafficking can produce between $1,000 to $3,000 dollars per day in revenue for the pimps involved in the victim's exploitation. Having knowledge of the large amounts of proceeds being generated, the use of Penal Code section 1275.1 would allow the courts to hold a hearing to verify the source of monies that would be potentially used for the bail/bond of a suspect. This would most likely result in the continued incarceration of pimps, prohibiting them from futher exploitation of these child victims.

No recommendations for this finding

Currently no data base is available to law enforcement agencies to check and identify victims of sex trafficking. Response: Agree with Finding. Law enforcement often has a hard time identifying child victims of sex trafficking. Proper identification of the child is often unavailable and results in their misidentification (F.7-Findings continued) during law enforcement contacts. The proper documentation and ability to identify child victims of sex trafficking would greatly improve the ability to determine the level of assistance needed once the victim has been identified.

No recommendations for this finding

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.