Houston Mayor Unveils Comprehensive Human Trafficking Plan As Super Bowl Looms

HOUSTON, TX — The City of Houston may be rolling out the red carpet for Super Bowl 51, but officials are telling sex traffickers and the “John’s” who come to the Bayou City looking for a little extra-curricular action that they aren’t welcome in Houston.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Police Chief Art Acevedo and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez were joined by members of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security at Houston City Hall Thursday afternoon and collectively outlined the city’s continued efforts to fight human trafficking.

“This is not a one-time occurrence,” Turner said.

In fact, Turner said the city has been working with all law enforcement agencies in the Greater Houston area and on the state and federal level to continue the fight against human trafficking.

A big part of the fight against human trafficking is being waged by educating the public on what it looks like, through the city’s comprehensive ad campaign.

Late last year, law enforcement agencies made numerous arrests for prostitution that were related to the element of human trafficking, which resulted in a number of arrests and the closure of spas that are common in strip centers throughout the Houston area.

“We will continue to focus on planned execution over the next three years to make sure the city of Houston is the first to take actual steps to institutionalize an anti-trafficking response,” Turner said.

A big part of the fight against sex and human trafficking is aimed at online solicitation on publications such as backpage.com, which is among the most prominent publication related to human trafficking.

Turner said that over the last four years, and at each Super Bowl site, there were noted increases in online sex ads.

As a result, they city is working with organizations to increase outreach, and with Carnegie-Mellon University to track increases in online solicitation through sex ads through 2017.

“It is because of our long-term approach that Houston has more anti-trafficking initiatives in place than any other major city,” Turner said. “Our initiatives are a significant and necessary complement to law enforcement's year-round ... efforts.”

Acevedo, who assumed his new role in December, commended Turner for acknowledging the issue of human trafficking.

Acevedo said the Houston Police Department will not only be focused on efforts to identify trafficking victims, but will be working in cooperation with other agencies as the Super Bowl game approaches.

Acevedo even had a special message for those typically called “John’s” who solicit prostitutes.

“We will have undercover officers, and we will have people who look different because we know a lot of people who do these things have a lot of freaky vices,” he said. “You think you might be looking for a little boy or little girl, or a young woman, and what you might find is a police officer ready to arrest you, and when we arrest you, we will expose you for the sick person that you are.”

To learn more about Houston’s Human Trafficking ad campaign, log on here.

Image: Bryan Kirk