Above photo and article found @ New Beginnings Project
"SANTA CLARA — At the end of the night, after a series of encounters that ended with a few citations issued and some stern talks given out, the detective found herself having a heart-to-heart with a young woman fumbling to explain how she ended up in a motel room filled with police.
She continued: “So I don’t have a choice. I mean, I have a choice, but not the ones I want to make.”
The detective, sitting next to her on the motel bed Wednesday, interjected.
“It sounds like he’s manipulated you emotionally,” the detective said. “Is it right for someone to get the money that you’re doing all the work for? He doesn’t seem to care about you. He has two other girls.”
Through the first two days of the operation, the task force detained or questioned 20 prostitutes and customers in the joint effort that also involved the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, county juvenile detention, and local victim-advocacy groups. They arrested one man they suspect was pimping a 16-year-old girl.
“We’re looking for human trafficking and to find victims of human trafficking. That’s our goal,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Kurtis Stenderup, who is running the operation. “Whether or not we arrest or cite sex workers, we don’t have a blanket policy on that. We know there are sex workers out there who aren’t being exploited, they’re in that business and that’s what they want to do.”
“I appreciate the way it’s a multi-pronged approach,” said Tanis Crosby, CEO of the Silicon Valley YWCA. “This is the way in which it should be provided, with confidential onsite support for survivors, where they can talk without fear of retaliation. It gives a measure of support and safety that is absolutely integral.”
The sheriff-led enforcement this week is part of a wider net of similar operations conducted across the country as part of the FBI-sponsored National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Santa Clara County identified at least 150 cases of human trafficking in 2015 and that at least 70 percent of the victims were victims of sexual assault at some point.
Read entire article @: The Mercury News.com
