Mayor's Task Force on Human Trafficking - April 27, 2016 - Minutes

Meeting Date: 
April 27, 2016 - 1:30pm
Location: 

Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking Minutes

Wednesday, April 27, 2016  •  1:30 pm - 3:30 pm  •  City Hall, Room 305

1 Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102

Attendees:

Tara Anderson, SFDA; Julia Arroyo, Young Women’s Freedom Center; Mollie Brown, Huckleberry Youth Services; Patrick Buckalew, Huckleberry Youth Services; Carly Devlin, Huckleberry Youth Services; Bert Fairries, FBI;  Antoinette Flora, Dept. of Public Health; Tony Flores, SFPD Special Victims Unit; Johanna Gendelman, Family and Children’s Services; Kelly Gilliam, NALLS Foundation; Susie Gonzalez, Supervisor Tang’s Office; Pratima Gupta, St. James Infirmary;  Laura Hackney, Annie Cannons; Carletta Jackson-Lane, Sojourner Truth Family Foster Youth Agency; Minouche Kandel, Dept. on the Status of Women; Sojeatta Khim; Dept. of Public Health; Antonia Lavine, SFCAHT; Elisabet Medina, San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center; Jorge Montiel, Dept. of Public Health, Emily Murase, Dept. on the Status of Women; Jackie Ortiz, San Francisco District Attorney; Seema Patel, Office of Labor Standards Enforcement; Lisa Peckler, Dignity Health Foundation; Jamel Perkins; Leah Price, APILO; Angelina Romano, SFUSD; Rhetta Rouland, Mortar Foundation; Leda Rozier, SFMTA; Ed Santos, SFPD Special Victims Unit; Sarai Smith-Mazariegos, SHADE; Jennifer Sta.Ana, APILO; Maria Tourtchaninova, Dept. on the Status of Women; Linda Walubengo, Larkin Street Youth Services; Paula Williams, Mortar Foundation; Gena Castro-Rodriguez, SFDA Victim Services

  1. Agenda approved.

  2. Minutes from February 24, 2016 meeting approved [Antonia Lavine/Tony Flores].

  3. Human Trafficking Training
  1. Preview of On-Line Training – Minouche Kandel

The Department on the Status of Women contracted with Global Freedom Center to develop an online human trafficking training, which will be hosted for free by Stanford University on their online education platform. The training will include three different tracks: general public, restaurant employees, and hotel employees. The training explains the chain of human trafficking that may occur in the various steps of a business. Each segment of the training is two-five minutes long and includes indicators of trafficking, how to respond, steps management can take, and action items for the general public. The videos will be translated into Spanish, Chinese, and Tagalog.  Minouche showed 2 of the segments at the meeting.

  1. SFMTA Training - Leda Rozier, SFMTA

SFMTA has 6,000 employees including 2,300 operators, station agents, and parking control officers.  SFMTA has agreed to pilot a human trafficking training with their training department, parking control officers and station agents, and Transit Assistance Program staff. The goal is to train 100 percent of staff, a feat Los Angeles has found challenging. SFMTA plans on including the human trafficking training as part of an ongoing annual employee training.

  1. Preview of Data Collection from 2015  - Maria Tourtchaninova

So far, the Department on the Status of Women has received data from 9 agencies showcasing an overall total of 229 survivors of human trafficking from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015. This year, the department has asked for confirmed survivors versus confirmed and suspected as was the case in the original report. This change occurred because of no consistent definition of what a suspected survivor means. Out of the 229 confirmed survivors, 94 were minors and 135 were adults. This year the department also asked for data on traffickers and received a total count of 38 traffickers. Other data highlights were presented to the task force.

  1. Committee Updates
  1. Sex Work and Trafficking Policy Impact – Dee Michel/Stephany Ashley

The committee has been working on a policy which would create protections for sex workers to report violent crimes without getting arrested or prosecuted for sex work or other minor crimes. Once the policy is adopted, training materials will be created to train law enforcement on proper response when a sex worker comes forth with a complaint.

The committee has recommended the creation of a Bad Date List –a tool for anonymously reporting negative or dangerous client interactions by sex workers, and St. James Infirmary is creating the list.   Currently, the tool is available online at SFBaddatelist.wordpress.com but will soon have an app created for mobile phones. The app will show “bad dates” that occurred in the user’s GPS area and will allow users to submit Bad Date reports. Right now, Bad Date List is accepting reports by phone, online, or in person. By making a report, individuals have the opportunity to send their report to SFPD and to receive any needed services such as mental health or medical care.

  1. Child Sex Trafficking  -  Johanna Gendelman

Family and Children’s Services has been piloting the CSEC screening tool developed by West Coast Children’s Clinic. Once West Coast validates the tool’s effectiveness in August, Family and Children’s Services plans to screen every child 10-years of age and above and again each time the child’s situation changes.

  1. Super Bowl Committee Wrap Up – Minouche Kandel

SFPD: Tony Flores/Ed Santos

During the week leading up to Super Bowl and the week of the Super Bowl, SFPD SVU conducted seven operations and made close to 100 arrests, mostly of sex buyers. Eight pimps were arrested, two minors rescued, and 17 adult worker women were offered services.

FBI: Bert Fairries

The week prior to Super Bowl and the week of the Super Bowl, the FBI set up an operation center specifically for human trafficking identification called HTOC. For this operation, 52 agents and professional staff were brought in from around the country to assist the 15 local FBI agents and local law enforcement units. HTOC successfully ran 18 operations involving 33 Law Enforcement agencies. HTOC identified 129 total individuals including suspects, victims, and sex workers. Out of those 129 individuals, 85 johns were arrested, 13 were traffickers who came here to traffic for the Super Bowl, and 7 juveniles were identified The FBI identified networks where individuals were brought into San Francisco area for the Super Bowl specifically.

DHS: Ben Horton

The mission of the Department. of Homeland Security is to disrupt and dismantle human trafficking networks through victim centered investigation. Two weeks prior to the Super Bowl, DHS targeted incoming flights at SFO for potential trafficking but did not come across any cases. During the Super Bowl, DHS carried out twelve operations alongside SFPD. As of November 2015, DHS has merged their human trafficking division with their gang division. The newly formed group contains 16 agents and one victim assistance coordinator.

Public Outreach Campaign – Minouche Kandel

The No Traffick Ahead Ad Campaign received over 20 million impressions with 200,000 Facebook views, 38,000 clicks from Google ad words, and 8,000 visits to the No Traffick Ahead website. The Ask Your Janitor ad was the most popular with 28,000 views and 1,600 website visits. The success of the campaign has generated interest in other cities including Chicago.

  1. Labor Trafficking – Minouche Kandel

Going forward, the committee will be looking into labor exploitation that may be happening in nail salons. The committee has reached out to Department of Environment in hopes of adding on to their existing Healthy Nails Program. Nail salons can voluntarily participate in Healthy Nails by getting trained on the use of non-toxic chemicals and proper ventilation. The Department of Environment is open to adding a labor rights piece to this training, which is given by a Vietnamese speaking outreach worker who herself is a nail technician. Though Healthy Nails is a great program, few know if its existence. The committee plans to outreach to Google and Yelp in order to develop an icon (ex: a green leaf) that can appear next to nail salons who participate in the Healthy Nails program. 

  1. Next Meeting - 6/22/16, 1:30-3:30 pm, City Hall, room 305