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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The arrests of 32 people in an area of Northeast Portland known for sex trafficking and prostitution is part of an ongoing police mission to crack down on “providers as well as buyers.”
PPB spokesperson Mike Benner said they “conducted numerous missions up and down Northeast 82nd as well as Northeast Sandy” during the month of January, which was Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
A total of 32 people were either arrested or cited. Two of those had outstanding warrants and/or failing to register as a sex offender. All the others were booked for soliciting or trying to procure a prostitute.
“We also during these missions collected a bunch of information in regards to other human trafficking investigations,” Benner said, “providers as well as buyers.”
Almost all of those nabbed by police were from the greater Portland metro, though some were from outstate Oregon and Washington. One was from Port St. Lucie, Florida. They ranged in age from 19 to 70.
The area of NE 82nd and Sandy is an area police know well. In January, KOIN 6 News reported on the shooting deaths of three people outside the Quality Inn. It’s not clear if this site is involved in this investigation, but Benner said that area “is known to our members for activity like this.”
During these missions, Portland police counts on the help of on-site care for those who are trafficked.
Esther Nelson-Garrett, the CEO of Safety Compass, said “getting them services in that window of time is very important, and can be literally the difference between life and death.”
Safety Compass Hotline: 971.235.0021
The mission of Safety Compass is to help people being sex trafficked.
“We will go anywhere,” she told KOIN 6 News. “We will go where they go because we want them to have representation.”
Nelson-Garrett said she and her volunteers help push people in the right direction to get out of their situation.
“They’re brave and smart and articulate and they’re navigating survival in heroic ways,” she said.
Services are crucial, “and the kind of services that they need to get to safety are, like, the least we can do to support them.”
As for this particular mission, Nelson-Garrett said they are still in the beginning stages of getting help to those who need it.
