Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on Human Trafficking:

Note: the ordinance in Hillsborough was passed at the March 2 BOCC meeting.

Pinellas officials join in club poster effort to fight sex trafficking

By Steven Girardi | Tribune Staff

Published: March 19, 2016

Updated: March 19, 2016 at 10:12 PM

CLEARWATER — The women typically are isolated, held hostage by fear and violence, moved frequently from place to place through an underground network of human trafficking.

Law enforcement officers and social service workers try to find and rescue them, but they are difficult to reach, many unaware that anyone knows or cares about them.

“Communication with these victims is a very, very challenging thing,” said Sandra Lythe, CEO of the Hispanic Outreach Center and InterCultural Advocacy Institute in downtown Clearwater.

Now county governments, including Pinellas and Hillsborough, are trying another way to reach victims and to increase awareness among other people who may run into them.

On March 1, Pinellas began requiring adult entertainment businesses, massage and bodywork services not owned by health care professionals, and specialty nail salons to post signs with information about human trafficking and telephone numbers victims can call to seek help.

Hillsborough leaders on Wednesday are scheduled to give final approval to a similar ordinance. And while no one is saying this will solve the trafficking problem, it is one more step.

“It is absolutely another tool in the toolbox to get rid of trafficking in our county,” said Hillsborough Commissioner Sandra Murman, who pushed for the ordinance. “The more awareness we have, the more educated people get about human trafficking, to get more eyes on the problem, then we’ll get rid of it and get rid of these terrible people.”

Doug Templeton, operations manager for the Pinellas Consumer Protection division, said investigators have been visiting businesses to notify owners about posting the signs, which they can get from the county’s website or make themselves in accordance with the requirements.

Templeton said many owners are not aware of the ordinance, but his inspectors have not received any objections to it. The county will issue warnings to those who have not complied, followed by fines of up to $500 a day for those who fail to post the signs. Hillsborough charges similar fines.

Templeton said Pinellas has identified 20 adult-use clubs or strip bars, about 550 massage businesses and about 350 nail salons through state Department of Professional Regulation and Department of Health records. Those businesses often are used by traffickers who force women into involuntary labor or prostitution, Templeton and others said.

“Realistically, the goal is we’re looking for compliance,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to help the business comply.”

Clearwater police Maj. David Dalton, commander of the Clearwater/Tampa Bay Area Human Trafficking Task Force, welcomed the signs.

“I think it’s just one additional piece of the puzzle in trying to get the word out,” he said.

Dalton said nail salons aren’t as much of a problem here as in other parts of Florida, and the victims are primarily used for forced labor rather than sex trafficking. But trafficking can take many forms — one reason the increased awareness is so critical, he said.

“The nuances of each one are so different,” he said. “So we’re looking for different clues and organization and networks.”

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The Clearwater task force was created in 2006. Florida in general and the Tampa Bay area in particular are among the leaders in reported human trafficking activity — with the state ranking anywhere from third to fifth.

However, Dalton said the numbers are high in part because investigators are more diligent here and are turning up more cases than other places might.

“That’s not to diminish it,” he said.

The signs, which must be written in Spanish and English and posted in prominent places, warn about human trafficking and what it is. They have a telephone number for the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (1-888-373-7888) or text information (INFO or HELP to 233-733) for help and services.

Dalton said the signs also might make customers more aware of trafficking activities and more likely to report something suspicious.

“If they’re going into one of these establishments, maybe they’re not thinking of someone being a victim,” he said.

In Hillsborough, Murman said migrant farming communities, with many undocumented workers moving in and out of an area, are especially vulnerable to traffickers.

“They look for children and look for women who need income. They prey on any weakness they can,” she said. “I think that’s what is so terrible about the problem. And the fact that we have so many runaways — they are perfect victims for these people.”

Working through underground networks — “It’s almost syndicated in some respects” — makes it difficult to find them, she said.

“When we post these signs, more people start to learn about the issue. It’s not just the people who are affected,” she said. “If more people have eyes on it, they will report it, and that’s what we need — people to report it.”

Dotti Groover-Skipper of Tampa, the Salvation Army’s state coordinator for anti-trafficking efforts, said the signs can help at adult entertainment businesses where traffickers sometimes send women to work.

“Sometimes they don’t even realize they’re being exploited,” she said. “But if they see a sign and maybe call for help, I think it would be very, very impactful.”

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Club owners, too, may become more watchfuland more likely to report suspicious activity, she said.

Groover-Skipper works with a seven-county coalition called the FREE Network that helps trafficking victims. She also goes to strip clubs with others on a personal ministry to speak with dancers, “to let them know they are valued and we can help and support them if they want to find other employment,” she said.

Carl Giannazzo, owner of the topless Treasure Chest Cabaret in Seminole, said he is happy to cooperate with Pinellas officials in posting the signs. There is one under the glass top of the entryway desk and others in the dressing rooms.

“If we can help, you’re damn straight we’re all over it,” he said last week.

Giannazzo belongs to a group called COAST — Club Owners Against Sex Trafficking. He said the owners and their staffs keep a close eye on the dancers, looking for indications of abuse, prostitution or captivity.

The Hillsborough-Pinellas-Pasco counties COAST branch has about 75 club owners who meet four times a year to talk about the activity they have seen. He said Homeland Security sends speakers and videos and offers tips to identify victims: Are they accompanied by men who speak for them and hold their identification? Do they have a social life? Have they been abused or battered? Does someone collect their pay for “safekeeping?”

“We try to observe who drops them off, who picks them up. Make sure they have real phone numbers, and they answer the phone, not some guy,” Giannazzo said.

He said he has seen only one suspicious incident since he opened his club three years ago. He called other club owners and found out the woman was working as a prostitute for a pimp. He never saw her again. “Two months later, the guy was arrested,” he said.

Lythe, of the Hispanic outreach group in Clearwater, said signs also are supposed to be posted in gas stations along highways, “any place where a victim might be, even for a few minutes.”

Lythe’s group works with a large number of immigrant workers, some documented and others not. Often, trafficking victims are from outside the country.

They don’t understand the language or culture and have no idea about laws and protection that might be available.

“When you work with victims of human trafficking, you have a sense of the fear they have of their traffickers,” she said. “They feel like the world forgot them.”

They are kept isolated and frequently moved around. The signs offer another chance to reach those who need help.

“It’s up to us from the outside to put out information, to put up notes for them, if you will, everywhere they might see them to let them know that we know they are there and there is help available,” she said.