Illinois human trafficking bill focuses cross-agency coordination,
victims
[March 20, 2025]
By Bridgette Fox and UIS Public Affairs Reporting (PAR)
SPRINGFIELD — A Senate committee passed a bill this week that would give
specialized training on human trafficking and establish coordination
across multiple state agencies and partners.
Human trafficking is defined by the U.S. Justice Department as “a crime
that involves compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or
services, or to engage in commercial sex acts.”
Senate Bill 2323 follows multiple recommendations from the state Joint
Human Trafficking Working Group formed in 2023. The recommendations
included victim screening, multi-agency coordination, victim-focused
training and more.
Advocate and Chicago-native Brenda Myers-Powell, who was a victim of
human trafficking for 25 years starting as a child, spoke at the state
Capitol on Wednesday in support of the bill.
If the bill is implemented, multiple state agencies would have to make
new units that work across jurisdictions and have specialized training
to work with victims and potential future victims.
“As a transportation hub, Illinois ranks among the highest in the number
of human trafficking cases in the whole United States,” Sen. Julie
Morrison, D-Deerfield, the bill’s lead sponsor, said Wednesday.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, one of the
agencies involved in the bill, would be required to maintain a human
trafficking unit, which has the main goal of helping victims with case
management and other services.
In a Senate committee hearing Tuesday, Illinois State Police Director
Brendan Kelly said there were fewer than 600 victims of human
trafficking reported to state agencies between 2021 and 2023. Another
966 possible cases of child trafficking were reported to DCFS over the
same period. But Kelly said the reported numbers are likely only a
fraction of the actual cases.
[to top of second column]
|
From left: Sen. Dale Fowler, Brenda Myers-Powell and Sen. Julie
Morrison show support for SB2323 on Wednesday, March 19, 2025.
Myers-Powell was a victim of human trafficking for 25 years.
(Capitol News Illinois photo by Bridgette Fox)
Kelly said law enforcement knows how to recognize “the bad guy” but is
not always as good at recognizing that the person with a perpetrator
might be being victimized.
“We have to have a comprehensive approach to this so that … when we
encounter someone who’s a victim, that there is a handshake between law
enforcement and all these social service providers because it’s simply
not enough just to hand them a pamphlet or a phone number or just go on
to the next bad guy,” Kelly said Wednesday. “We have to break the cycle
but making sure we’re better serving victims.”
The bill also repeatedly mentioned improving “victim-centered,
trauma-informed” responses from law enforcement and other agencies.
Kelly said training on the complex trauma of human trafficking and
taking input from survivors like Myers-Powell will make combatting the
problem easier.
The bill now goes to the full Senate for a vote.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government
coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick
Foundation. |
