Cops, Prostitutes and Pimps: Arrests Turn Up No Trafficking Victims
03/15/2012
Sara Lin/Civil Beat
Editor's Note: This article is the fourth in a series investigating how the Honolulu Police Department enforces Hawaii prostitution laws. Read our related coverage:
- No Arrests on a Saturday in Honolulu
- The Story Behind Our "Cops, Prostitutes and Pimps" Series
- In One Year, One Pimp Arrested
- Honolulu Prostitution Arrests Declining
- The Database
Honolulu is one of 39 cities around the country that has a federally funded task force to investigate human trafficking. But a Civil Beat analysis of every prostitution arrest made in the last year reveals not one sex trafficking victim.
In other words, either Honolulu doesn't have a sex trafficking problem — or local law enforcement isn't doing enough to investigate it.
A Civil Beat probe into how the Honolulu Police Department enforces prostitution laws shows the department made 214 arrests in a 12-month period. That included 118 women and 96 men.
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