As a group of Jacksonville elected officials gathered to focus attention on the need to combat human trafficking, survivor advocates in attendance offered their opinions on how it should be done. City Councilman Tommy Hazouri convened the Monday morning meeting to address trafficking that brought together State Attorney Melissa Nelson and one of her chief assistants, Mac Heavener, along with Sheriff Mike Williams and other council members and law enforcement officials.
In , City Council passed an ordinance introduced by Hazouri that requires human trafficking awareness signs be posted at adult entertainment and massage establishments. The meeting on Monday represented the 2.
According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center , there were cases of human trafficking reported in Florida in Of those, were sex trafficking and 92 were labor trafficking. The victims overwhelmingly were women, accounting for of the victims. Florida ranks third for reported trafficking cases, surpassed only by California and Texas, Hazouri said.
Goff said in , police rescued 44 victims out of human trafficking, 10 of whom were juveniles. There were 29 trafficking-related arrests, and 14 federal indictments for trafficking, he said. For decades, he said, police have addressed street-level prostitution arrests without viewing it through the lens of human trafficking. Keen pointed to Seattle, which implemented an eight-point model that included the business community.
It was a whole cultural shift. Heavener, as a federal prosecutor, has worked on cases involving human trafficking since Juveniles are primarily trafficked for commercial sex acts, while adults are typically trafficked for sex and labor.
