Suffolk County has rolled out a new child advocacy program to overhaul the way they investigate human trafficking cases.
The initiative connects multiple levels of law enforcement, government agencies, and community advocates to find missing children and to help victims of trafficking and child abuse.
Human trafficking in Suffolk County has reached an "epidemic proportion," according to Sylvia Diaz, deputy Suffolk County executive.
"We are in the top 20 percentile for human trafficking in the nation," Diaz said at a news conference Thursday announcing the initiative, called "Operation Safe and Lasting Return."
The all-hands approach is designed to identify at-risk youth, find missing children, and provide social services that both prevent trafficking and provide care to families when the child is returned.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said traffickers lure victims in different ways. Social media plays a large role.
"They exploit them mentally [and] ultimately find a way to meet up with them physically," Catalina said. "They offer them drugs and fake love, sometimes clothing...things that they just might not get at home. They turn around after a period of time and say, 'Hey, now you have to pay me back.'"
When they can't, they're often forced into sex work. Rape, kidnapping and trafficking can follow from there.
Officials said the child advocacy program announced yesterday is one of the first of its kind in the New York metro region.
Last year, Suffolk County opened the first court in the state dedicated solely to handling human trafficking cases.
