According to the U.S. State Department, as many as 600,000 to 800,000 people are victims of trafficking every year. Most of them are women and children, who are transported across international borders for the purpose of commercial sex, pornography and other forms of exploitation.
Riverside County supervisors are expected today to sign off on two sheriff’s requests for federal grants to support programs aimed at reducing domestic violence and human trafficking.
Sheriff Stan Sniff needs the county Board of Supervisors’ approval to file an application for a U.S. Justice Department “Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders Program” grant and an “Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking Program” grant.
The size of each funding request was not immediately available.
The anti-domestic violence grant would be shared between the sheriff’s department, other public agencies and nonprofit organizations.
“Sheriff Stanley Sniff … will ensure that … domestic violence victims are protected in their homes, interviewed to support prosecution and provided the opportunity to access services at a Family Justice Center,” the grant application states.
“The sheriff is committed to increasing training for all line personnel in order to ensure the safety of the victims and the responding officers, and to educate them in … dealing with domestic violence.”
The human trafficking prevention grant would fund an “enhanced anti-human trafficking law enforcement task force and victim service (program) designed to identify, rescue and assist foreign and domestic, adult and minor, victims of human trafficking,” according to sheriff’s documents.
[…]
