Bay Area Prosecutors Join Forces to Raise Human Trafficking Awareness Ahead of Super Bowl

By Bay City News Service:

Four Bay Area district attorneys Wednesday sought to raise awareness about human trafficking and asked the public to report suspicious behavior that might be trafficking in the days leading up to the Super Bowl.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen and San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe spoke at San Francisco International Airport as more than one million people are expected to come to the Bay Area for Super Bowl-related events and the game itself on Feb. 7.

Gascon said there is no tie between human trafficking and the Super Bowl, but it’s a good time to ask for the public’s help.

“The Bay Area happens to be one of the hot points,” Gascon said. “It’s happening right in front of us.”

The prosecutors said that collaboration is how they are going to win against traffickers.

“That is how we’re going to conquer this,” O’Malley said. The collaboration must include residents and community groups, such as faith organizations, they said.

“This is not a game,” Rosen said. “It’s no less than a rescue mission.”

O’Malley said some intelligence indicates that gangs are turning to human trafficking and away from drugs because trafficking is so profitable.

The prosecutors said the problem may be growing but part of the increase in numbers may be the greater attention law enforcement is paying to the issue. For example, Santa Clara County officials established a task force of six officers in 2015 and the number of human trafficking cases there increased by 70 percent.

O’Malley said human trafficking includes both labor and sex trafficking. The prosecutors said children are also increasingly being targeted. O’Malley said an estimated 300,000 women and girls per year in the U.S. are victims of human trafficking, and many boys are too.

Signs of human trafficking can include working and living conditions where people are not allowed to come and go as they please, where people sleep in the same place as they work and places where children assume adult roles, such as paying bills, the prosecutors said, adding that situations where people are exchanging sex for money, food and shelter should be reported, too.

“Human trafficking occurs every day in our communities,” O’Malley said. “We are focusing on this every day.”

(Image via Shutterstock)