The Portland Police Bureau announced Saturday that its human trafficking unit had arrested 29 people on charges related to paying for sex.
Frequent patrols in areas of the city with chronic prostitution issues resulted in more than 110 contacts with people selling sexual services, according to information provided by the bureau. All of those contacts were offered aid, including medical examinations, treatment and safe places to escape those controlling them.
Police and victim advocates also used these contacts to collect information on suspected buyers, traffickers and ongoing trafficking investigations.
“Human trafficking is a pervasive and deeply harmful crime that targets vulnerable individuals, often children, and subjects them to ongoing abuse and exploitation,” the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement. “It is fueled by demand and perpetuated by those who seek to profit from human suffering.”
To that end, the human services unit focuses on prosecuting the people paying for sex or controlling the women expected to provide it, according to Kristi Butcher, the sergeant overseeing the unit.
“We believe that addressing the demand side of this problem really does a lot of things,” Butcher said in a video about the unit’s work linked to Saturday’s announcement.
Butcher’s unit works closely with the Multnomah County district attorney’s office to also prosecute the pimps who traffic most sex workers. The other goal, Butcher said, is to help the victims of trafficking.
“That initial connection is really what makes it or breaks it in terms of our cases, and even cases that never go to court, if we can help some sort of positive connection in their life, that is what we strive for,” Butcher said.
Robin Miller, a victim advocate with lived experience as a trafficking victim, said in the video she was grateful for the unit’s focus on helping women who often feel they have no choice but to sell their bodies.
“If this was legitimately called work, this would be the deadliest job somebody could have,” Miller said.
Anyone who is being trafficked or suspects someone they know has been trafficked can call 911 or the bureau’s non-emergency line, 503-823-3333. The National Human Trafficking Hotline can be reached by calling 888-373-7888 or by texting “BeFree” to that number.
“It does get better when you get out,” Miller said in the video, seeming to speak to people currently under the control of a trafficker. “My worst day ever after I got out was better than my best day in prostitution.”
Those arrested on prostitution-related charges since April include:
Kenny T. Manylath, 27
Bobit Phull, 45
Christopher L. Kinney, 31
Daniel J. Throckmorton, Jr, 31
Tyree L. Carter, 37
Morgan P. Nicholson 38
James S. Gossard, 30
Joshua Dillinger-Tillotson, 35
Mario A. Huerta-Contreras, 35
Tyler A. Worley, 33
Emad M. Labib, 22
Cris L. Cepeda, 42
Miguel Flores-Fuentes, 37
Teodoro Bautista-Franco, 63
Brian S. Matsubara, 51
Maynor A. Perez-Perez, 21
Samuel A. Eisenberg, 33
Matthew Plummer, 36
Christian M. Zapanta, 28
Taher K. Heyi, 36
Isai Flores-Ambroso, 25
Dylan Popoca-Gumeciendo, 19
Jhostan Soto-Inga, 26
Ryan J. Bustamante, 31
Alan Yanez-Peralta, 25
Andrii Tifoi, 27
Amanaki N. Latu, 27
Luis M. Camara-Mezuita, 53
Christopher J. Wilkins, 51
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