Professor Hannah Garry, founding director of the International Human Rights Clinic at the USC Gould School of Law, clinical professor of law and faculty director of the Donna and Spencer Gilbert Global Justice and Human Rights Center, testified before the California State Assembly Public Safety Committee Oct. 15 during an informational hearing on sex work-related crimes and efforts to combat human trafficking.
Garry, an expert in international human rights law, presented findings from the clinic’s 2021 report Over-Policing Sex Trafficking: How U.S. Law Enforcement Should Reform Operations, which examined the effectiveness of law enforcement operations targeting sex trafficking in the United States.
Examining the Impact of Anti-Trafficking Raids
During her testimony, Garry said federal and state law enforcement agencies have conducted “raids, stings, or sweeps” to identify sex trafficking victims and perpetrators since the passage of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000. These operations have been central to the U.S. government’s anti-trafficking efforts and are often showcased in media as success stories, she said.
However, the International Human Rights Clinic’s three-year study revealed a troubling lack of transparency and efficacy in these operations. Despite Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and California Public Records Act (CPRA) requests to 16 agencies, she said, “11 of the 16 agencies denied or failed to answer our requests with regard to our findings,” leaving the public without key data on funding, arrests and outcomes.
“Based on the available qualitative and quantitative evidence gathered, again, over three years, we found that specific information on the outcomes and funding of anti-sex-trafficking law enforcement operations is simply largely unavailable to the public,” Garry said.
To read the full report and watch the testimony, click here.
Previous Article
