BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 1731 (Atkins) - Statewide Interagency Human Trafficking Task
Force
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|Version: August 1, 2016 |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 7 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Jolie Onodera |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 1731 would permanently establish the Statewide
Interagency Human Trafficking Task Force within the Department
of Justice (DOJ), as specified.
Fiscal
Impact:
DOJ : First-year costs of $175,000 (General Fund) in FY
2016-17, and $313,000 (General Fund) annually thereafter to
chair the task force and complete the mandated task force
activities including statewide data collection and increased
public outreach.
Task Force members : Minor, absorbable workload impact
(General Fund) to various state agencies to provide a task
force representative.
Advisory committee(s) : Unknown, potentially significant costs
(General Fund) to fund the staffing and activities of the
advisory committee(s) established by the task force. To the
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extent the advisory committee executes some of the duties that
otherwise would have been completed by the DOJ in its workload
estimate, the associated costs would be redirected from the
cost of the task force to the advisory committee.
Background: In 2012, the DOJ published a report entitled, "The State of
Human Trafficking in California," which reported the following:
It remains a key challenge to identify the scope
of human trafficking in California, as statistical
data on victims, arrests, and convictions are
unreliable. As described in the 2007 report, the
crime itself is hidden and under-reported. Common
categories and shared definitions do not exist -
nor is there any single agency responsible for
statewide data collection. As a further
complicating factor, potential cases of human
trafficking are often investigated and prosecuted
under related offenses such as pimping, pandering,
and prostitution rather than the Penal Code 236.1,
which criminalizes human trafficking.
The report included numerous recommendations,
including but not limited to the following:
Gather Comprehensive Human Trafficking
Information: California needs a central
clearinghouse to coordinate and compile human
trafficking information from local, state, and
federal law enforcement agencies and governments,
as well as non-governmental organizations. It is
important for any data collection effort to take
special care to ensure that all partners share
common working definitions of key terms, and to
address the relative dearth of information about
labor trafficking as compared to sex trafficking.
Utilize California's Fusion Center System for
Human Trafficking Information Sharing: California
lacks a centralized mechanism for the collection,
analysis, and dissemination of human trafficking
information. California's State Threat Assessment
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System (STAS) provides critical tactical and
strategic intelligence about trends and emerging
patterns relating to criminal activity across the
state, and ensures that first responders and
policy makers are provided with relevant and
timely situational awareness, as well as
information on traffickers' current tactics and
techniques. In coordination with the Attorney
General's Office, California's anti-trafficking
task forces should partner with other local,
state, and federal law enforcement and the STAS to
improve California's human trafficking information
sharing environment.
Increase Public Awareness: To raise awareness of
this crime, public and private anti-trafficking
partners can mount a coordinated, comprehensive
public awareness campaign to improve awareness of
human trafficking amongst the general public.
This bill seeks to permanently establish a statewide task force
to facilitate more collaborative efforts to combat human
trafficking.
Proposed
Law: This bill would create the Statewide Interagency Human
Trafficking Task Force within the DOJ, consisting of
representatives from all of the following agencies:
(1) A representative of the Department of Justice shall be the
chair of the task force.
(2) The State Department of Social Services (DSS).
(3) The Children and Family Services Division of the DSS.
(4) The Labor and Workforce Development Agency.
(5) The State Department of Public Health.
(6) The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
(7) The State Department of Education.
(8) The Judicial Council.
(9) The California Victim Compensation and Government Claims
Board.
(10) The Department of Consumer Affairs.
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This bill would require the task force to do all of the
following:
Gather statewide data on sex and labor traffickers, sex
buyers, and human trafficking victims, including statistics
on prosecution of offenders as well as services provided to
victims, including commercially sexually exploited
children.
Recommend interagency protocols and best practices for
training and outreach to the law enforcement community,
victim service providers, and other state or private sector
employees likely to encounter trafficking, such as
educators and hotel workers.
Evaluate and implement approaches to increase public
awareness about human trafficking and make new
recommendations on these approaches.
This bill would specify that the protocols shall not duplicate
the protocols developed by the California Child Welfare Council,
as specified.
This bill would provide that if the task force determines that
the expertise of an advisory committee or advisory committees is
needed to execute the duties imposed upon it pursuant to this
section, the task force may create an advisory committee or
advisory committees comprised of subject matter experts,
including but not limited to, representatives of relevant county
and municipality agencies, survivors, businesses, nonprofit
organizations, and any other entities, groups, or individuals
the task force deems appropriate.
Prior
Legislation: AB 22 (Lieber) Chapter 240/2005 established civil
and criminal penalties for trafficking in human beings, allowed
for forfeiture of assets derived from human trafficking, made
legislative findings, and created the California Alliance to
Combat Trafficking and Slavery (California ACTS) Task Force.
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