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State Reps. Grisamore and Zerr Lead Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking in Missouri
February 19, 2011
Human trafficking in Missouri, especially as it affects children, was a key theme of activity this week at the Missouri Capitol. On Tuesday, Rep. Jeff Grisamore, R-Lee’s Summit/Greenwood, convened a second subcommittee/working group meeting of the Missouri Children’s Services Commission on children affected by human trafficking.
Grisamore, who serves as the Children’s Services Commission Chairman, joined a group of officials from throughout the state, including representatives of the Missouri Attorney General’s office, U.S. Attorney’s offices, the FBI, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, other state departments and agencies and county prosecutors, including Goldie Tompkins.
Tompkins chairs the Children’s Services Commission Subcommittee on Children Affected by Human Trafficking. “The majority of human trafficking cases are not being charged under the state statutes, not because state prosecutors are unwilling, but because offenders face harsher penalties if prosecuted under the federal laws,” said Tompkins, who is an Assistant Prosecutor in the Cole County Prosecutor’s Office.
“One of the things discussed by the subcommittee was designating the trafficking of children as a dangerous felony, which would then require those convicted to serve a mandatory minimum of 85 percent of their sentence,” Tompkins added.
Grisamore says that 41 arrests on federal charges have been made for human trafficking in Missouri since 2006 in western Missouri and the Kansas City area. One arrest led to a conviction in one of the largest human trafficking rings yet to be tried in federal courts. During that same period, 18 arrests were made on state charges in western Missouri.
More human trafficking arrests have been made in eastern Missouri and the St. Louis area, as well as some outstate. Deb Hume, a teaching professor at the University of Missouri and co-chair of the Central Missouri Stop Human Trafficking Now Coalition, said there is a growing underground network of human trafficking, even in outlying areas of Missouri, that can prey on runaways and children who have aged out of foster care and become vulnerable to traffickers.
The effort to enact federal human trafficking laws has been led by Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, who as a U.S. Senator sponsored the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which was signed into law by former President Bill Clinton.
In the Missouri House, state Rep. Anne Zerr, R-St. Charles, has sponsored legislation to strengthen state laws on human trafficking in Missouri through House Bill 214, which passed out of the House Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety.
As the legislation moves closer to discussion on the floor of the Missouri House of Representatives, Zerr and Grisamore will be working on amendments to enhance the House Committee Substitute (HCS) for HB 214, based on the recommendations of the subcommittee and working group on children affected by human trafficking.
“The good news is that hundreds of adults and children in Missouri have been rescued from human trafficking in sexual exploitation and forced labor,” said Grisamore. “But we have much more to do.”
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