The Portland Police Bureau's (PPB) Human Trafficking Unit is one of five agencies selected to learn how to improve its training to assist human trafficking victims.
PPB’s Human Trafficking Unit has been selected to serve as a demonstration site by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). PPB was selected out of 30 agencies.
On Portland's northeast side on 82nd Avenue between Fremont and Sandy Boulevard, PPB says there's an open-air market for sex trafficking. It's a horrifying place Robin Miller knows all too well.
I met a pimp trafficker in Portland, Oregon in 1993 at a local club and was immediately moved from the Portland area to Tacoma," Miller said.
Days later Miller was put on a corner in San Francisco and sold in the sex trade for six years. She thought she was involved in a romantic relationship with her trafficker. They even had three children together.
“The emotional and the mental ties to him and that desire to be a family and have a normal relationship was what kept me there so long," she said.
It's the same story for many young teens and women that have fallen victim to sex trafficking. Sergeant Kristine Butcher leads the PPB's Human Trafficking Unit. It was just selected as a demonstration site to improve how they identify victims and investigate crimes.
“I think it’s super important that we’ve been chosen. We’re a large west coast city and we’ve been doing this type of work for a long time," Butcher told KATU News.
The two-year study will provide resources, support, and technical assistance through a trauma-informed and victim-centered approach.
KATU News asked Butcher what needs to be improved in the Human Trafficking Unit to help the ongoing situation Portland is facing right now.
“I think a lot of things. I think like a bigger plan of attack so to speak," Butcher said. "This isn’t just a law enforcement problem this is a community problem and we’re going to need more than just police officers and detectives to solve this problem."
PPB already does rescue missions and is working to disrupt the demand for trafficking.
We firmly believe in attacking the demand side of the problem. There are a lot of sides to human trafficking and demand is definitely one of them. If there were no demand, if there were no people that wanted to purchase sex then there would not be as many victims," Butcher said.
Many women don't know they're being trafficked and refuse to participate in identifying who they are. Miller didn't, but she eventually found her way out.
“It is like domestic violence on steroids. I left my pimp statistically the same number of times as a woman who was married to her abuser for 20 years. I think the only difference is that woman who is married for 20 years, he never trafficked her," Miller said.
PPB's Human Trafficking Unit lost two detectives last year. They were transferred to the homicide teams. Sergeant Butcher told KATU News this hinders the work they do which causes trafficking cases to sit longer.
“I’ve always had four officers in the unit. Fully staffed would be four detectives in the unit and two sergeants. So now it is just myself as the supervisor, four officers, and two detectives," she said.