For years California’s state legislature has wrestled with creating new laws to protect victims of the sex trade while supporting law enforcement’s efforts to crack down on human trafficking.
Two new bills have now arrived with that goal. They are working their way through the legislative hearing process. They carry with them the challenge of correcting previous legislative miscues. Critics, from both sides of the issue, say those earlier bills were flawed.
Assembly Bills 63 and 379 both have a common target — a previous bill signed into law in 2022 by Gov. Gavin Newsom which eliminated loitering laws used by law enforcement to question anyone involved in suspicious street activity.
Both proposals, which are working their way toward Public Safety Committee hearings, are sponsored by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. But only one has the full support of San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan, who co-sponsored AB 379.
She said this bill “strengthens the tools for law enforcement to go after the predators and humanely expands vital shelter and support services for survivors trying to rebuild their lives.” But as for the other bill, “We are watching AB 63 as it moves through the process but have not taken a position on it at this time.”
Gloria said he believes both new bills “are common-sense measures to restore law enforcement’s ability to stop illegal activity while also helping victims escape exploitation.”
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl supports the effort, saying, “We commend Mayor Gloria for supporting the proposed legislation.”
One difference between the two bills is that the District Attorney’s office advocates for the “survivors model” in anti-trafficking efforts, which takes the position that any laws or policies involving the trafficking of victims should consider the victims’ experiences and welfare.
AB 379 was introduced by Assemblymember Maggie Krell, a Democrat from Sacramento, who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office at one time. Her bill would address what its supporters believe is a grievous mistake — a bill passed last year which set the age for a minor for trafficking at 16 years old and younger.
The original intention was to include youth under 18. But that element got knocked out in committee last year, so this year’s legislation will again introduce the 18-and-under provision. The new bill would also punish buyers purchasing commercial sex, making it a misdemeanor with a $1,000 fine. That money would be given to community-based organizations to provide direct services and outreach to sex trafficking victims.
The bill is set for a hearing before the Assembly Public Safety Committee at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
The second bill, AB 63, was introduced by Assemblymember Michelle Rodriguez, a Democrat from Ontario. It focuses on punishing the pimps and prostitutes involved in trafficking.
“I am committed to ensuring California’s law enforcement agencies have the necessary tools to protect and serve all Californians,” said Rodriguez.
This bill has widespread law enforcement support because it would reinstate loitering laws. But in a nod to the transgender community the new bill would prohibit the police from making an arrest solely based on the individual’s gender identity or sexual orientation.
Marjorie Saylor, director of human trafficking services in the District Attorney’s office, said AB 63 “goes after the prostituted individual. The attitude behind the bill sees the prostituted individuals as the problem. Just prostitutes on the street that need to be removed from the area.”
California Police Chiefs Association President Jason Salazar, who supports the bill, disagrees. “Law enforcement has no desire to criminalize victims,” he said, but there are “significant challenges in intervening to stop these open-air prostitution markets.”
Next stop for the bill is the Public Safety Committee, although a hearing hasn’t been scheduled yet.
Both bills seek to fix Senate Bill 357, which was authored by Sen. Scott Weiner, a Democrat from San Francisco. At the time of passage, Weiner said it would prevent the police from harassing and discriminating against anyone loitering. The law effectively told street cops they need to back off questioning anyone loitering unless they had proof of a crime.
What happened, say law enforcement agencies across California, including the San Diego Police Department, is that Weiner’s legislation emboldened pimps and prostitutes. Gloria noted that before S B357, police might see four to eight individuals engaged in prostitution daily. “Now, that daily count is between 12 and 30,” he said.
Activists who monitor sex trade on the streets in several cities also saw an increase in the sex trade, like Helen Taylor with Exodus Cry a nonprofit advocacy group opposing the trafficking of humans across the globe.
“I saw an uptick of girls and pimps on the street,” she said. Taylor monitors trafficking along Figueroa Street, a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles.
She speaks from experience, saying she has endured the crime first hand as a “survivor of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.” And now she is an advocate for the victims.
Saylor said she believes in the “survivors model” in dealing with the sex trade, and said AB 379 will “help end demand and fix the victim.”
“If you only address the pimps and the victims and don’t address the buyers, trafficking is only going to increase.”
Both women believe there is an undercurrent of money and partisan politics intertwined in many efforts to curb modern day slavery. Sex trafficking is the second largest grossing crime in California, according to various sources. And Taylor said that “sex buyers fuel the industry.”
Saylor agreed, adding that industry is deceptive. “They’re saying that they are sex workers when they’re actually not,” she said. “They’re managers, they’re pimps, they’re brothel keepers, they’re the ones that are benefiting off of the backs of their peers.”
As an example, they refer to what happened last year when another effort was introduced to replace Weiner’s legislation. “We are coming up against voices of pimps and perpetrators that take precedence over our voices” she said, adding that “the ACLU and their sex worker activists came really hard against that. They wanted to keep SB357 as it was, hands off for buyers, pimps, and the prostituted individual.”
After the hearings Taylor spoke individually with one man who testified as a sex worker supporting Weiner’s bill. When the 6’3″ transgender man learned Taylor did outreach on Figueroa Street in Los Angeles he said, “I’m down on Fig (Figueroa). All the girls know me. I manage the girls. I provide the security.”
When she asked if any of the sex workers didn’t want to be there, he responded, “Oh no they all want to be there.”
His testimony helped, and the Weiner bill stayed on the books, which is one reason the two new bills have been introduced.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Two new bills seek to help California law enforcement fight growing sex trafficking )
Also on site :
- Reeves warned employment rights law has already led to hiring freeze and loss of business confidence
- Congress returns as Trump’s domestic agenda hangs by a thread
- Chicago businessman-turned-terrorist appears in India court wearing black hood