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Portman, local officials discuss ways to fight human trafficking
BOARDMAN
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Cincinnati-area Republican, visited the Valley on Friday to talk about a topic that local law enforcement and health-care professionals agree is a worsening problem: human trafficking.
At a roundtable discussion at St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital, Portman met with representatives of the Northeast Ohio Coalition Against Human Trafficking, Mercy Health officials and local law enforcement and elected officials. Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, Maj. Jeff Allen with the Mahoning County Sheriff’s office, Boardman Trustee Tom Costello, Boardman Police Chief Jack Nichols and Todd Werth, head of the Youngstown Federal Bureau of Investigation office, were among those who attended.
Portman talked to the group about one of the ways he is looking to curb human trafficking: the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, a bipartisan bill that Portman introduced earlier this month.
The act takes aim at websites such as Backpage.com.
Portman explained that legal challenges to the site in recent years have been unsuccessful because a provision of the Communications Decency Act shields websites such as Backpage. His legislation seeks to eliminate federal liability protections for websites that “assist, support, or facilitate a violation of federal sex-trafficking laws.”
Introduction of the legislation follows a two-year Senate subcommittee investigation into Backpage.com, which found that the site “knowingly facilitated criminal sex trafficking,” according to information provided by Portman’s office.
Portman noted that the online sex-trafficking issue applies almost exclusively to Backpage.com and that other websites “have chosen to stay out of that.”
Local officials shared with Portman some of the things they’d like to see happen at the federal level to help stop sex trafficking.
Allen noted that law-enforcement officers used to be able to track the IP addresses used to post online ads, but that the ads are almost exclusively posted using prepaid phones now. He said he’d like to see a law requiring those phones be registered to their owner when they’re purchased.
“If not, we’re done,” he said. “We’re lost.”
Kelly Jankowski, a Youngstown police officer, said additional education is needed to make people aware of what human trafficking really is.
“A lot of people think human trafficking are these big vans coming into the state,” she said. But even what’s commonly seen as prostitution might be a case of human trafficking, she said.
“They have pimps that put them out there. That’s human trafficking. Absolutely,” she said.
Nichols noted that investigations into human trafficking are manpower-intensive, which puts stress on local resources. He said any additional federal resources would help local police combat the issue.
“This Backpage is just an absolute nightmare,” he added. “It has completely changed the face of prostitution in this area over the last 10 years.”
Werth said that federal support for the local task forces devoted to these types of crimes is crucial.
In addition to the roundtable discussion, Portman met privately with a local human-trafficking victim, and later toured St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital.