Santa Clara County Funds New Human Trafficking Team
SANTA CLARA (KCBS) — The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Wednesday to establish a human trafficking team.
The Super Bowl and other high profile sporting events like those coming to Levi's stadium typically increase human trafficking activity so the Santa Clara County Board of supervisors has dedicated more than $850,000 dollars to establish the team.
"The FBI rates the Bay Area as one of the top 13 places in the nation for human trafficking," Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese said.
"Having this kind of problem ranked this high, we certainly need some help."
The District Attorney and the Sheriff's Office requested the additional funds for one sergeant, two deputies, a criminal investigator and an attorney on human trafficking.
"I don't think we built our departments or our county in such a way to deal with this problem and essentially what we're doing making a course correction now given the problem at hand," Cortese said.
Victims of human trafficking, including many foster children and smuggled immigrants, are often promised real jobs then forced into prostitution.