We Needs Cops to Catch Sex Traffickers

Opinion Police Defund The Police Sex trafficking Human trafficking

One wonders if the leftists seeking to "defund the police" realize that this reckless capitulation to anarchy would directly benefit pedophiles and sex traffickers who prey upon innocent Americans.

Contrary to the claim that the local police are a "cancer" in our society, the men and women of law enforcement play a critical role in protecting American communities from the scourge of organized crime, including sex trafficking. While nonprofit organizations and other humanitarian groups can provide a critical service by helping to identify and expose human trafficking networks, as well as aid tremendously in the rehabilitation of survivors, our work can simply not be completed without a strong, dedicated police department in every city.

Private citizens can't obtain search warrants to investigate suspects or arrest suspected kidnappers and pimps—and that's exactly the way it should be. Building a bulletproof case against sex traffickers requires meticulous attention to detail and years of law enforcement experience. Rescuing a single child is a massive collaborative operation between NGOs and law enforcement. Because the monsters who sexually exploit innocent children often belong to powerful criminal organizations with the resources to defend themselves in court, we can't afford to make even the tiniest mistake when we prosecute them.

There is simply no margin for error, which is precisely why most police departments across America desperately need more resources to recruit and train professional officers.

Regrettably, the rioting anarchists, media elites and radical Democratic politicians don't seem to care about the victims of sex trafficking—or about the victims of most other crimes.

Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN), for instance, recently endorsed the idea of dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department, arguing that it is a "rotten" institution and "a cancer."

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also embraced the call to defund law enforcement, proposing to redistribute police funding to various social programs, including public housing.

U.S.-Mexico border fence ARIANA DREHSLER/AFP via Getty Images

The truth, however, is that many police departments in America simply can't perform the services citizens expect of them if they are forced to operate with smaller budgets. The city of Los Angeles, for instance, is the second largest market for child sex trafficking in the U.S. For vulnerable minors in L.A., a well-funded police force is not a luxury—it's a necessity. The same is true in Austin and Houston—cities where law enforcement funding is already insufficient to deal with the sex traffickers coming across our southwest border.

Despite the fact that no decent person would ever willingly tolerate human trafficking, radical protesters want to get rid of the very institution we rely upon to prevent and punish this crime against humanity.

America has come a long way in its fight against sex trafficking, over the years—but the campaign to "defund the police" threatens to reverse that progress. The only way to effectively protect innocent children from human traffickers is by ensuring that the police have the training and resources they need to identify and catch predators.

Like most other criminals, human traffickers seek the path of least resistance—they don't like kidnapping children if the risk of getting caught is high. Defunding or eliminating local police departments will only incentivize pimps to infiltrate communities that refuse to uphold the rule of law.

Many of the activists and Democratic politicians who support defunding the police may be well-intended, but that doesn't change the fact that their crusade against law enforcement will only lead to sinister results.

Purging the police will result in a rapid decline of children being rescued and will not protect the innocent.

Jaco Booyens, a native of South Africa and an American citizen, actively fights against child sex trafficking in the U.S. and globally. He also serves as a fellow at the Falkirk Center at Liberty University and is the founder and CEO of After Eden Pictures.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.