“This operation significantly disrupted but did not eliminate human trafficking. This will be a daily fight,” DA Stephan said.
San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan announced last week that her office assisted in a major sex trafficking bust, which included the arrest of 48 individuals, rescuing eight children.
Since January 9th, a multiple law enforcement operation involving local, state and federal enforcement led by the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force, has conducted 17 operations aimed at cracking down on human trafficking.
Operation “Better Pathways” had two goals, according to San Diego Police Department’s Chief David Nisleit. The first was “to recover victims of human trafficking and guide them to resources in hopes of guiding them to a better pathway in life and hold their traffickers accountable.” The second goal was to “clear the pathways of sex trafficking and prostitution on Dalbergia Street in San Diego and Roosevelt Street in National City” focusing on areas where sex soliciting occurs.
“This operation significantly disrupted but did not eliminate human trafficking. This will be a daily fight,” DA Stephan said.
Stephan rode with two of the operations enforcement teams on different occasions and was appalled by what she saw.
“Lines of cars like this is some kind of buying a hamburger at a 24/7 place but these are human beings. It’s an unacceptable situation.”
The operation, launched in response to complaints of trafficking and exploitation in both San Diego and National City, rescued eight underaged girls, and eight adult women who were being trafficked. The youngest victim found walking the streets was just 13 years old. Two runaway 16 year olds from Arizona were also rescued. Their trafficker was a violent man who used sexual violence and a gun to prostitute three women under his control.
A 21-year-old pregnant woman forced to traffic her body was among those rescued. In all, the team helped 41 victims who would be offered support services and made 48 felony arrests for weapons and human trafficking.
“You’re seeing lives being destroyed, and people making money off of destroying lives,” Nisleit said.
The demographics of buyers were people from all walks of life. “These are doctors, lawyers, construction workers, teachers, superintendents, that are often out there buying someone.” Stephan said. “That is what fuels the $810 million industry of human trafficking. They must be held accountable.”
Better pathways addressed all three areas of exploitation: the trafficker, the victim and the buyer Nisleit revealed.
But all was not smooth sailing. The recent enactment of SB357 makes the job of rescuing trafficked human beings much harder for law enforcement. The law decriminalized loitering with the intent to prostitute making it harder for police to approach victims.
Law enforcement is “fighting an uphill battle” because of these types of legislation, Nisleit said. “It makes it very hard to go out and contact the victim or the sex slave, if you will, because of this law. It decriminalizes the behavior but not the impacts.”
Chief Jose Diaz National City Police Department, who thanked members of the coalition task force said, “The changes to the soliciting with intent to prostitute law has restricted police from taking action and by doing so has negatively impacted the quality of life for residents and business owners in National City.”
Attorney General Rob Bonta who fielded several questions in regard to SB357 said he’s open to discussions about the law.
Nisleit indicated that he would be making a request for the law to be repealed.
