Las Vegas, Nevada is a known hub of sex trafficking in the United States (Bahouth, 2021). The number of sex traffickers and victims in the city at any given time is overwhelming to law enforcement and precision policing is critical. The goal of law enforcement intervening in sex trafficking situations in Las Vegas is to hold sex traffickers accountable without forcing a victim to participate in their trafficker's prosecution. Victim participation in prosecution until now has been essential to prosecution but has caused great harm to victims. This study explains a policing technique using undercover police officers to create situations when sex traffickers reveal themselves and their intention of sex trafficking to the undercover officers. Once a trafficker was identified and they were linked to potential victims, the victims were offered services to exit the sex trafficking situation. The research questions for this study included: 1) What are the characteristics of the sex traffickers? 2) Did they also sell drugs and were they gang involved? and 3) What did they offer the undercover officers? From January 2021 to December 2022, 303 sex traffickers were identified and arrested for pandering with no victim involvement. The sex traffickers were 99% male. They were from 18 other states and nearly 100% had previous criminal involvement. Recommendations from this study include intervening with males in juvenile corrections, communicating with Nevada State Police about the movement of traffickers from different states, and communicating with other divisions in LVMPD about gang and drug involvement of the sex traffickers.
Please note, this presentation will only be offered LIVE during it's scheduled session and will not be available for recorded viewing after the conference.
Dominique Roe-Sepowitz is an associate professor at ASU's School of Social Work and the director of the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research. Her work focuses on addressing social issues impacting girls and women, collaborating with partners such as law enforcement, social service providers, and survivor support organizations.
Captain Noel Roberts has been with the Las Vegas Police Department for 24 years. He has worked assignments including Patrol, Field Training, and Problem-Solving unit. He worked as a detective in the Vice, Narcotics, and Criminal Intelligence Organized Crime sections. As VICE Unit Lieutenant, he oversaw the Southern Nevada HT Task Force.