AnonymousSource: Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
On Tuesday, February 4, 2020, Sheriff Alex Villanueva from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department held a press conference to detail the results from the sixth annual Operation Reclaim and Rebuild enforcement operation. The operation was executed during January to correlate with National Human Trafficking Awareness month and was focused on rescuing victims of human trafficking and aiding them in rebuilding their lives.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office participated in the operation as part of the Santa Barbara County Human Trafficking Task Force along with the Lompoc Police Department, Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office, Santa Barbara Police Department and the Santa Maria Police Department. Together with the Ventura and San Luis Obispo Human Trafficking Task Forces, a total of 3 pimps and 14 solicitors of prostitution were arrested. 22 potential victims of exploitation were contacted. Each of the potential victims met with human trafficking advocates from the District Attorney’s Office Victim Witness Program and were offered or provided with services geared toward helping them break away from their exploitation.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Human Trafficking Task Force was established in 2016 with a $1.34 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. The grant was renewed in October 2019 with an additional $1.2 million in funding for three years.
If you suspect someone is a victim of human trafficking, please call the Sheriff’s Office Anonymous Tip line at (805)681-4171 or provide an anonymous tip on our website.
I hate pimps, woodchippers and pimps go together…
Odd that they say “22 potential victims of exploitation were contacted,” while in another report I read about this, they said 22 “prostitutes” were detained. Do they now treat all prostitutes as victims? Not all are forced into this trade.
Oh, yeah, the one in ten thousand prostitutes who choose to be prostitutes excuse your exploitation of women. Yup.
ALEXBLUE – What? Hyperbole much? I never said exploiting women was in any way OK. Just curious why they’re referred to as prostitutes in one report and victims in another. Also, do you have any facts or stats to back up the claim that 9,999 out of every 10,000 prostitutes are doing it against their will?
It’s implied that these people were forced into prostitution. That makes them victims IMHO.