El Dorado County Sheriff's Office 2017 Annual Report | Page 16

The Investigations Unit is made up of fourteen

full-time Detectives, a crime analyst, one

Sergeant and one Lieutenant. This team works to

investigate the most complex crimes, keeping

the patrol deputies available to respond to calls

for service. The crimes investigated in this office

are typically felony level Property, Elder Abuse,

Financial, Sex and Homicide/Person crimes.

These types of investigations require a large

investment of time and resources to solve.

It is the highest priority of the Sheriff’s Office to

uncover all evidence in order to bring closure to

a case. Detectives work collaboratively,

regardless of case assignment, to solve the

complex cases. They also work cooperatively

with other agencies within and outside of the

county along with other governmental and

community based organizations.

Over the past few years, the nation has seen a significant increase in the prevalence of human

trafficking; even in smaller communities such as our own. This year, El Dorado County Sheriff's

Investigations team made it a focus to both

expose and impact any human trafficking

occurring within our county.

The most common form of human trafficking is

sexual exploitation, accounting for 79% of

human trafficking victims. These victims of

sexual exploitation are predominantly women

and girls. According to UNICEF, 2 million children

are estimated to be trafficking victims of the sex

trade each year. 20% of these traffic victims are

children. The average age of a girl being forced

into the US domestic sex slavery market is 13.

Given these stats and information, El Dorado

County Sheriff’s Detectives began receiving

training on Human Trafficking and Prostitution.

Detectives began monitoring online dating

websites and noticed a rise in clients advertising

services in El Dorado Hills, Placerville and South Lake Tahoe. Detectives have conducted several

operations on both the West Slope and in the

Tahoe Basin targeting Human Trafficking.

The main purpose of the investigations are to

identify the victims who are being prostituted by

pimps and to identify the suspects who are

pimping human trafficking victims in El Dorado

County. The operations were “Victim Centered”,

identifying the traffickers, focusing on the Pimp

not the prostitute.

During the three operations in 2017, Detectives

and DA Investigators collaborated with the FBI

targeting online dating sites. During the

operations, 21 people were either arrested or

received citations for various crimes. Some of

those crimes consisted of prostitution, drug

possession and human trafficking. During the

operations, three victims of human trafficking

were identified and removed from their captors;

one of which was a 17 year old juvenile victim.

All three were provided counseling services.

Investigations

Homicide

Rape

Robbery

Assault

Larceny

Burglary

Auto Theft

2016

2

54

37

915

1,547

512

42

2017

5

37

20

960

1,444

525

34

Seven Major Crimes

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