CHICAGO (NewsNation) — An Illinois sheriff’s department has reported a record number of human trafficking cases over the last two weeks.
Human trafficking charges in Cook County, Illinois, have skyrocketed and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said the internet has exacerbated the problem to a magnitude they can’t control.
The county released pictures of almost a dozen men and women arrested over the last two weeks on suspicion of human trafficking, prostitution and child exploitation, pointing out that his team has seen a surge in children exploited through blackmail tactics.
“The past two weeks have been, in one respect, very successful for the sheriff’s office in our arrest of a lot of different people,” Dart said during a press conference on Monday.
These suspects were charged with trafficking, prostitution and child exploitation.
But the problem is much bigger than local law enforcement, the sheriff’s office said, and it needs more help from the federal government to crack down on the perpetrators.
“There clearly is no conceivable, no way we are going to arrest our way out of this problem, no matter how many people we get, no matter how many ads we put out on the internet, we are overwhelmed with this,” Dart said.
Earlier this month in Ohio, more than 150 were arrested in a human trafficking sting called, “Operation Buyer’s Remorse.”
The internet has made it nearly impossible for local agencies across the country to make a dent in this type of crime.
In 1998, law enforcement averaged about 3,000 tips each year, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Now, they average more than 30 million tips on missing and exploited children every year.
And that’s just for children. That number doesn’t account for the adults affected by human trafficking.
Dart said he would hope to be making thousands of more arrests, but he doesn’t have the personnel or task force to do so.
According to the International Labor Organization, there are 24.9 million human trafficking victims around the world at any given time.
Dr. Francine Bono-Neri, the co-founder and president of Nurses United Against Human Trafficking, argued that the real number of victims is actually much higher.
“I will tell you that these numbers are so underestimated,” she said. “I believe the latest statistic is that it grosses $240 billion a year. That’s more than Nike, Google and Starbucks combined.”
A retired New York Police Department officer said that many of these victims are forced into the job — many of whom are children.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people are being victimized, forced into this lifestyle to, again, pay off their debt for being perhaps brought into the country or to help their families,” retired NYPD officer Michael Alcazar said. “A lot of families aren’t on the up and up there. They’re using their children there.”
And although the Cook County sheriff said his team needs more personnel and funding, they are cracking down on internet providers, demanding their help to stop these criminals.
“We are sending out a letter to these sites. ‘Will you work with us? Will you alter your site? Hiring more people, putting on more filters, screening people and forwarding them to law enforcement?'” Dart said.
Dart also emphasized that parents should aggressively monitor their children on their phones and the internet. He said his team has seen more and more online predators ask children for risque images and then blackmail them.
NewsNation affiliate WGN contributed to this report.