BJA Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Initiative. Bureau of Justice Assistance

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1 National Conference of State Legislatures - Fall Forum San Diego, California - December 11, 2009 BJA Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Initiative Presented by: Lon McDougal, Policy Advisor Bureau of Justice Assistance

2 U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Provides federal leadership in : Developing national capacity to prevent and control crime; Improving the criminal and juvenile justice systems; Increasing knowledge about crime and related issues; and Assisting crime victims.

3 OJP OJP Bureaus and & Offices Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Community Capacity Development Office (CCDO) National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART)

4 BJA Roles BJA Roles Encourage development and implementation of strategies to reduce and prevent crime and violence. Encourage participation of community organizations and citizens in efforts to prevent crime, drug abuse, and violence. Provide training and technical assistance in support of efforts to prevent crime, drug abuse, and violence at the national, state, and local levels.

5 BJA Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Efforts BJA in collaboration with other DOJ Offices has created and funded, since 2004 through four solicitations, 42 victim centered human trafficking task forces to identify and rescue victims of human trafficking and pro-actively investigate human trafficking. Currently 40 task forces have active grants. These task forces are collaborative efforts among law enforcement at all levels, human trafficking victim services agencies, and U. S. Attorneys Offices to identify and rescue victims of trafficking in persons and successfully prosecute traffickers.

6 Trafficking Victims Protection Act The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (22 U.S.C (8)) defines severe forms of trafficking in persons as Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age. The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

7 Criminal Human Trafficking Statutes in 42 States When BJA began it s Anti-human Trafficking Task Force Initiative in 2004 only two states had enacted criminal human trafficking statutes: Washington and Florida. There are currently 42 States with criminal human trafficking statutes.

8 BJA Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Solicitations BJA Solicitations require awardees to collaborate with U. S. Attorneys, federal law enforcement, and OVC funded trafficking victim service providers. Future solicitations are dependent upon our ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of Human Trafficking Task Forces in the identification and rescue of victims

9 Anchorage BJA / OVC Anti-Human Trafficking Task Forces Seattle Multnomah County Salt Lake City San Francisco Oakland San Jose Las Vegas Colorado St. Paul Milwaukee Chicago Indianapolis Independence Erie County District of Columbia Connecticut New York City New Jersey Boston Suffolk County, NY Nassau County, NY Orange County Los Angeles San Diego Phoenix Pitt County Hawaii Northern Marianas (Saipan) Fort Worth Dallas Louisiana Austin Bexar County Harris County Clearwater Lee County Collier County Miami - Dade Homestead

10 Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) BJS Human Trafficking Reporting Human Trafficking Reporting System System (HTRS) (HTRS) This project, funded by BJS and implemented by Northeastern University, is designed to increase our understanding of the extent and nature of human trafficking incidents in the United States by creating a sustainable data collection and reporting system that will track information from state and local law enforcement agencies about people involved in human trafficking. Throughout the course of the project, researchers from Northeastern University and Urban Institute will work closely with the BJA Human Trafficking Task Forces to meet the following goals:

11 The HTRS facilitates reporting data on the number of investigations, arrests, prosecutions and incarcerations of human trafficking offenders, as well as a measurement of the number of victims identified by agencies participating in human trafficking task forces. Data is collected on a monthly basis through a webbased human trafficking case management system.

12 Human Trafficking Task Force Performance BJA funded Human Trafficking Task Forces are required to report human trafficking incident data through the BJS Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS) on a monthly basis. The HTRS generates the six-month performance metric data from each reporting task force for BJA.

13 Other BJA Human Trafficking Efforts BJA tasked: The Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) to develop a victim centered train-the trainers curriculum in 2004; Funded the Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute (UMCPI) to deliver this training with other Regional Community Policing Institutes;

14 2009 Human Trafficking Efforts Immersion Training conducted by host task forces from Harris County, Seattle, and Clearwater, FL; BJA and OVC contracted with OVC Technical Assistance and Training Center to develop technical assistance for the Human Trafficking Task Forces to include an operational manual for these task forces; Southeast Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Conference conducted December 2-3, DOJ is planning the 2010 National Human Trafficking Conference to be held in May.

15 OJP Grant Opportunities For Current OJP Funding Opportunities: BJA Home Page: BJA State Policy Advisors:

16 BJA Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Initiative Website: Contact Information: David Adams Senior Policy Advisor, BJA Tel