It was called “Buyer Beware.”
The program resulted in the arrest of 115 men by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office in October as part of a major multi-agency anti-human trafficking operation. It focused on reducing the demand which drives sex trafficking, bringing awareness to human trafficking — and highlighting a new state law that makes solicitation of prostitution a felony.
“The darkness of human trafficking is undeniable with the rise in demand and it will not be tolerated in Tarrant County, said Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn in a release. "We will vigorously fight in partnership with law enforcement around the state to hold offenders accountable and protect victims.”
“Our combined efforts to eradicate human trafficking in the Metroplex are incomplete without addressing the egregious demand for commercial sex,” Christopher Miller, acting special agent in charge at Homeland Security investigations in Dallas also said in the release. “The HSI Dallas-led North Texas trafficking task force continues to collaborate with law enforcement partners to combat human trafficking from a wholistic, victim centric approach. The 115 arrests should serve as a deterrent to those who incentivize and glorify human trafficking by consuming commercial sex. Without demand, human trafficking would cease to exist."
Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jennifer Gabbert, chief of staff of the department’s Public Information Office, told Lone Star Standard that the current situation at the U.S.-Mexican border makes a bad situation worse.
“The border crisis exacerbates an already prevalent crime by increasing the number of possible victims,” Gabbert said. “Many individuals who enter the country are vulnerable and don’t always have a strong support system. That makes them easy targets for human traffickers.”
The department’s main goal is to remove demand that bolsters the trafficking industry between Mexico and the United States.
Texas Department of Public Safety Regional Director Hank Sibley said this is linked to the increase of illegal immigration.
“One of the main reasons that the cartels are involved in smuggling people across the border of Texas, into Texas and other parts of the United States is to fuel the sex trafficking industry,” Sibley said.
According to a 2016 report from the University of Texas at Austin, there are 78,996 minor and youth victims of human trafficking and 234,457 victims of labor trafficking in Texas at any given time, totaling 313,453 victims of human trafficking.
Gabbert said Waybourn has made cracking down on this crime, which leaves innocent people, many of them children, as victims, a priority.
“The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office conducts human trafficking operations on a regular basis since Sheriff Waybourn created the TCSO Human Trafficking Unit in 2017,” she said.
During the operation investigators posed as children, using online sources to identify key suspects.
In addition to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office's human trafficking unit, other law enforcement agencies involved included the Fort Worth Police Department, the Arlington Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Department of Homeland Security, the Texas Office of the Attorney General and Tarrant County constables.
The suspects charged were ages 20 to 70 and come from different lifestyles and backgrounds. The arrests drew much media attention, and Gabbert said it’s important to let the public know of the extent of these kind of crimes and the sheer number of both victims and people willing to pay for sexual acts.
“It is likely the public is not aware of the extent of the problem,” she said. “Law enforcement, along with other partners and non-profit organizations, must continue to get the word out to educate the community, rescue and protect victims and prosecute those who violate the law related to human trafficking.”
State government is assisting in this effort, Gabbert said.
“Texas legislators recently acted by making penalties greater for human trafficking type offenses,” she said. “We all must continue to increase awareness and fight to protect victims.”
