YES OREGON. Trafficking Hotline Bill passed

The bill was sponsored by
Reps. Brent Barton and Jefferson Smith and is one that Multnomah County
Commissioner Diane McKeel worked closely on.

House Bill 3623 recognizes growing human trafficking concerns among Oregon officials.

"Human
traffickers find fertile ground for the forced prostitution of young
women here in Oregon," Smith said in a news release. "And this bill is
a small first step to begin the fight against this growing problem."

The
bill allows the OLCC to include informational stickers with all license
renewal letters to businesses that serve liquor throughout Oregon. A
non-profit agency is supplying the stickers and by including the
sticker with a letter already mailed to 11,000 establishments, there
will be no cost to the state.

Oregon keeps no statewide
numbers on human trafficking, but during a one-night national sting
involving 29 cities a year ago, law enforcement officers picked up
seven underage girls involved in prostitution in Portland -- more than
any other city besides Seattle.

The city's proximity to
Interstates 5 and 84 as well as two rivers is attractive to
traffickers, along with lax sexual trafficking enforcement laws, a
legal sex industry, a large population of homeless youth and Oregon's
dependence on seasonal farmworkers, according to Keith Bickford, a
Multnomah County sheriff's detective who heads the Oregon Human
Trafficking Task Force.

“While some bills are solutions in
search of a problem,” Barton said, “This bill will save the life of at
least one girl who would otherwise become the victim of human
trafficking.”