Suffolk County officials announced Thursday a new anti-human-trafficking initiative they say will improve communication and coordination between law enforcement and other groups after a child is reported missing.
Dubbed “Operation Safe & Last Return,” the program will push agencies to share information as soon as a missing person’s report is filed, Faith Lovell, bureau chief for the family court division of the county attorney’s office, said at a Thursday press conference.
“[It is] a collaborative response with all of the stakeholders here … so that when a young person goes missing, and law enforcement receives that call … it triggers that collaborative response of every agency around,” she said.
Dr. John Imhof, commissioner of the Department of Social Services, added that Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine has declared there be “no more silos.”
“We work together,” Imhof said. “We all have to communicate with each other.”
The initiative comes just weeks after the bizarre kidnapping of 14-year-old Emmarae Gervasi, who disappeared for a month before her dad tracked her down following an anonymous tip.
Authorities have named seven suspects in the sensational case, and Gervasi’s father has claimed that she was sex trafficked.
The human-trafficking rate in Suffolk County is now at epidemic proportions, Deputy County Executive Sylvia Diaz noted.
“We are in the top 20th percentile for human trafficking in the nation,” she said. “This is a distinction that no county would want to have.”
“We have an obligation to build an infrastructure to support the child and the families impacted by this devastating occurrence,” she said.
“Just like drug trafficking, human trafficking is a business. And people are out there doing this every day, exploiting children — many of those missing from our own community.”
“We want government to work for a change,” added Romaine, who leads the local government.
“This is probably one of the most critical issues that we face in this county today: Protecting our children, preventing human trafficking [and] cutting out criminal elements that sometimes prey on women, children and families,” he continued.
“So we are all together working. And not one of us has all the answers, but together we do have some of the answers to the question, ‘What do we do next? And that’s what this is all about: Bringing people together so we can solve problems.”
“This is a huge issue here in this county. And if we can’t protect our children, who can we protect?”
