$1.5M In Grants Launches Lake County Human Trafficking Task Force

WAUKEGAN, IL — A new anti-human trafficking task force in Lake County has been established with the help of a federal grant. Prosecutors, police and providers of services to crime victims will collaborate as part of the task force, officials announced Wednesday.

The Lake County State's Attorney's Office and local victim services organization A Safe Place were one of six applications nationwide this year to receive an Enhanced Collaborative Model Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking grant from the Justice Department's Office of Victims of Crime.

The grant will provide $750,000 to the state's attorney's office over the next three years, as well as $750,000 to A Safe Place, which will use the money to hire three victim support professionals, according to a spokesperson for the state's attorney's office.

Pat Davenport, CEO of A Safe Place, described the establishment of the task force as a “dream come true” at its unveiling Wednesday, according to the office. She said there was also need to combat labor trafficking in all economic sectors and across the county.

“These federal dollars that our team earned will make Lake County safer now, and years into the future,” Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said.

Assistant State's Attorney Kyle Dole will serve as the lead task force prosecutor in Rinehart's office, which is interviewing candidates for a position as an investigator.

Several additional prosecutors and another investigator will assist the task forces operations in part-time capacities, according to the state's attorney's office.

The grant will also fund a coordinator to work jointly with the state's attorney's office and A Safe Place to provide education about the signs of sex and labor trafficking.

“Traffickers who would threaten, exploit, and abuse others for their own profit will be caught and brought to justice because of this task force," Rinehart said.

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The Justice Department provided the following description of the grant award:

This multidisciplinary task force will coordinate and direct county-wide efforts to reduce human trafficking, service the survivors of such crimes, and aggressively investigate and prosecute both sex and labor traffickers. The Task Force will implement victim-centered, trauma informed and collaborative approaches through the development and implementation of Task Force protocols and trainings. A grant funded Task Force Coordinator will be hired to manage activities, meetings, partnership growth and sustainability. The LCSAO will conduct extensive proactive investigations and prosecutions of sex and labor traffickers. ASP will deliver wraparound OVC-approved direct services to HT victims to help them achieve increased safety, independence, self-sufficiency and well-being.

Several local elected officials sent letters in support backing the joint A Safe Place–Lake County State's Attorney's Office grant request, including U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, State Sen. Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake), Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg (D-Zion) and U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Deerfield).

Schneider said he looked forward to continuing to work with the state's attorney's office to provide support to survivors of human trafficking.

“Survivors of human trafficking need our support as they rebuild their lives, and perpetrators of human trafficking should be punished to the full extent of the law," Schneider said in a statement. "I am proud to have supported this effort to crack down on human trafficking and I am grateful that the U.S. Department of Justice has made this investment in Lake County’s safety by funding the Human Trafficking Task Force."