The NYPD is gearing up to intensify its crackdown on prostitution during the World Cup, as officials informed The Post this week.
Inspector Gary Marcus, who leads the NYPD’s Special Victims Unit, revealed that the plan involves targeting areas notorious for prostitution, such as Penn Station, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and hotels in Times Square. “Part of the strategy will focus on these locations where prostitution is rampant,” Marcus explained.
Marcus, along with other NYPD representatives, spoke with The Post on Friday, shortly after the opening match of the extensive 104-game tournament began across North America. The tournament, featuring eight games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will run until the final match on July 19.
Additionally, NYPD units are set to keep a vigilant eye on well-known commercial sex hubs, including Penn Track in East New York, Brooklyn, as well as Roosevelt Avenue in the Corona and Jackson Heights neighborhoods of Queens, Marcus noted.
“Typically, large-scale events such as sporting events attract an increased demand for prostitution,” Marcus stated. “Sex traffickers often exploit these opportunities to boost the availability of commercial sex services.”
The NYPD has also been working with people who may come into contact with trafficking, like employees in the hospitality industry and at hospitals.
“It does not look like what you would expect to see in the movies,” Marcus said. “So we prepare them for what those indicators might be, and what to do when you encounter a potential victim.”
Trafficking victims might include people who are “not dressed appropriately for the weather, or they have untreated injuries, or they look to someone else when they have to answer very basic questions,” he said.
Kathleen Baer, the NYPD’s assistant commissioner for Gender-Based Violence Policy and Planning, works with aid agencies in the city to make sure there’s help for anyone who’s being trafficked — and with local prosecutors to build a case against the criminals responsible, she said.
“We’ve seen throughout history and it will be no different with FIFA, when you have a large influx of people, the demand rises,” said Baer, who led anti-trafficking efforts when she was a prosecutor at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
“We’re going to be out there in full force conducting these operations and ensuring that we have the backup support from our advocates and our district attorneys where cases do come up.”
Trafficking victims “run the gamut,” she said.
“So we have girls that are homegrown in Brooklyn,” she said.
“We see people being brought here from South America, and then they end up in a trafficking situation,” she continued. “Their documents are taken from them, they don’t have money, they don’t have a way to survive.”
The cases are difficult because victims are scared of their handlers or don’t want to get them in trouble.
Making things even more difficult, the women are often reluctant to talk to cops, she said.
“So, when we go and we try to conduct one of these rescues, they’re often very mistrustful of law enforcement,” she said.
She recalled cases with girls as young as 11 being trafficked and stressed the need for tips from the public.
“But we have to get the tips and be able to identify it,” she said.
“That one phone call can really save a life,” Marcus added.
Tips can be called into the NYPD human trafficking hotline at 646-610-7272 or NYPD Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish.