Dear Senators Blackburn and Klobuchar,
I am writing on behalf of the members of the Fraternal Order of Police to advise you of our support for S. 4534, the “National Human Trafficking Database Act.”
Each year, tens of thousands of people are illegally trafficked into and around the United States. This modern-day slavery is one of the largest and fastest growing criminal industries in the world, estimated to generate well over $100 billion in illegal profits. Yet while our law enforcement officers at every level fight every day against human trafficking, they find it difficult to share information between different agencies, making it difficult for law enforcement officers to find and shut down these criminal organizations.
Your legislation would address this problem by establishing a national human trafficking database within the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and provide funding to State law enforcement agencies to assist in providing information for this database. The bill would provide over $50 million to the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), to distribute grants for collecting data, and $1 million to the FBI to help create the infrastructure for the database. Under your legislation, each State would submit information on the human trafficking risks for each county, the total number of State-level human trafficking prosecutions, and the names of prominent human trafficking organizations in each State. The FBI would then publish this information on its website on an annual basis.
The shared information network created by this legislation will help State and local law enforcement agencies to identify and shut down human trafficking organizations and operations within the United States.
On behalf of the more than 373,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police, I thank you both for your leadership on this issue. If I can be of any help or provide additional information in support of this legislation, please do not hesitate to contact me or Executive Director Jim Pasco in our Washington, D.C. office.
Sincerely,
Patrick Yoes
National President