At the second anniversary of the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force, Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell announced a new approach deployed in pursuit of the demand side of commercial sex.

The Sheriff’s Department’s Human Trafficking Bureau has partnered with Demand Abolition, a non-profit organization dedicated to impacting human trafficking by eradicating the demand for exploited commercial sex workers.

The announcement came during a press conference on Thursday at the Hall of Justice.

In forming the new partnership, Sheriff McDonnell also declared Los Angeles County a CEASE (Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation) Network community.

The benefit of joining this network of 11 other communities across the nation is the availability of 21st-century technology to disrupt the buying and selling of human beings online, and arrest illegal sex buyers through cyber-based strategies.

With the advantage of a wide variety and number of social media applications, the availability and ease of committing sex-based crimes outpaced the ability to perform operations.

To counteract this, CEASE Network digital strategies use open-source data to identify high-frequency buyers seeking underage girls; having this use of technology now available will greatly assist the task force detectives in pursuing criminal investigations or offering education to sex buyers who may not realize they are breaking the law.

With the employment of CEASE Network services, task force detectives will also gain the advantage of capturing more information about purchasers and their general profile, and thus be in a better position to strategically target online advertisements.

In speaking of the task force’s efforts over its two-year history, Sheriff McDonnell cited the rescue of more than 205 victims of human trafficking, 151 of which were minors; the arrest of more than 200 pimps and traffickers; and the arrest of more than 250 men who attempted to purchase commercial sex.

“However, sex trafficking is moving off the streets and on to the internet where sex buyers think they can hide,” McDonnell said. “Today, we are saying there is nowhere to hide.”

The commitment to reduce demand and decrease the number of victims of commercialized sex by dramatically increasing risks taken by buyers fulfills one of the three prongs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Human Trafficking Bureau fight against human trafficking:

1. To identify and rescue victims of human trafficking and connect them with social services and opportunities;

2. To identify, arrest and prosecute those exploiters who choose to victimize the most vulnerable members of our community by selling them as commercial sex slaves; and

3. To impact the DEMAND side of the commercial sex industry by targeting those who pay to have sex with minors and exploited women.

“The Demand Abolition strategies take us and our local law enforcement partners into the 21st century where trafficking, exploitation and commercial sex has grown at a remarkable pace,” said Chris Marks, captain of the Human Trafficking Bureau, who oversaw its course since its inception.

Dr. Alex Trouteaud, Director of Policy and Research for Demand Abolition, and Tom Perez, founder of The EPIK (Every Man Protecting Innocent Kids) Project, also spoke at the event. They outlined the network and pool of advocacies for victims of commercialized sex and stood alongside Sheriff McDonnell, Captain Marks and the backbone of task force members dedicated to ensuring its efficacy.

Since the establishment of the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force, a select band of men and women have delivered on a professional and steadfast commitment to its success in abolishing the inhumanity of human trafficking.