Portland known for large sex trafficking rings

“You’re getting the PG (-rated) version of what’s going on. But it is important for everyone to know,” said Keith Bickford, head of the Human Trafficking Unit of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.

Bickford spent an hour Tuesday in the Town and Gown Room to educate MHCC students and staff about the gruesome realities of sex slavery in our own backyards. The vivid stories he shared from his experience working with victims and their families are the filtered versions, but still go far beyond the dry numbers and conventional stats we usually encounter at public forums.

Disclaimer: the content that follows may be disturbing and cause discomfort – especially given these accounts are all true.

Bickford has worked with Multnomah County for 20 years, and has pursued trafficking cases for eight years. He’s now focused on foreign- born (victims) trafficking.

He defines general human trafficking as “the power and control over someone that exploits them somehow.”

In sex trafficking, also referred to as sex slavery, this is done in three key ways: Pimps (traffickers) use force, fraud, or coercion to manipulate those they prey on.

Bickford said modern trafficking has grown more complicated. In the past, beatings and inducing drug addictions were common methods of making victims submit to them, but traffickers now realize these tactics do not work as well because their “products” break down more easily.

“Some of the girls I talked to were having sex with someone – someone that was paying to have sex with them – 20 to 25 times a day.

“That takes its toll on a human body. I don’t care how young you are or good a shape you are – that’s not just sex, that could be beating, that could be rough sex, that could be a lot of horrible things happening to these children that they have to endure because this person (a ‘John’) is paying for it,” Bickford said.

“In the John’s mind, it’s ‘You’re mine for an hour or half-hour, so I can do whatever I want to,’ ” he explained of the brutal mentality.

Mind games

The method of victims’ “brainwashing,” as Bickford called it, makes reaching out to them that much more difficult.

“If there’s only brainwashing going on, it’s hard to tell. They’re taught to look normal. They’re taught to not make eye contact. What to say if a teacher talks to them, or a counselor at school. Or, police officers,” he said. “They train these girls and boys how to behave out in public or school, in church – all of the above.”

The pimps’ approach to brainwashing girls and boys has a lot do with appealing to their wants, or even, needs. Studies such as those by the Polaris Project show that teenagers without positive influences or strong guidance are targeted more often, and are more vulnerable.

“There are (hard) things we have to do as parents that we may not enjoy, necessarily, or be comfortable doing, but it’s something we have to do,” said Bickford. “The trafficker can say ‘yes’ to everything that a parent says ‘no’ to –that’s their ace in the hole.”

Schools not safe

Pimps target areas where they know children hang out most. This can be the shopping mall, the park and even where we tend to think they are most safe – at school.

Bickford told the account of a recruiter who was about age 18 who knew exactly how to make his money the easiest way. The recruiter did his “homework” – he read the rules of the school handbook. He knew he didn’t have to have a parent present to register for classes, and knew all the school guidelines. He made sure he stayed out of trouble and out of the view of school administrators. He knew when the lunch hours were.”

Bickford described the recruiter’s plans, in detail:

“He said, ‘I’m having a little trouble reading. I haven’t been able to read very well for a very long time.’ So they set him up in the special education department, (him) knowing – and this is how good he was – at the particular time, I don’t know if it’s changed now in high schools, but knowing then, he could stay in high school ’til he was 21 as long as he stayed in a special education program.”

The recruiter even assigned one of the girls in his so-called “herd” to recruit even younger girls at a nearby middle school.

Disturbing trend

Bickford explained why such young girls and boys are being targeted nowadays.

“The supply and demand is very important when it comes to child sex trafficking and when your demand is younger girls, you have to, as a trafficker, go out and find what (Johns) are demanding because that’s how you make your money. It’s awful, but that’s how they work it. It’s disgusting, but it’s important to know that the Johns are the ones paying for the sex with these children.”

Bickford compared this desire for younger victims to a drug. Johns get used to having sex with a 17-year-old or a 16-year-old “and that gets boring after awhile, so you want to get a little bit of excitement, so you want to start going a little bit younger,” he said. “So, they start paying out more money trying to find the person who has these children.

“I think the youngest, I believe who was in Georgia, was about 8 or 9,” he said.

Outreach is critical

This is reality. This is happening in Portland.

And while it is awful to hear, Bickford says we can’t hide from it.

“A lot of you may ask: What can I do to help? And I know it’s hard sometimes to swallow, but it’s the outreach. It’s taking the paperwork (handouts) you have here and spreading that to other people. Share it at work, at church, at school, or wherever, you know.

“The outreach is worth more than you can imagine. The more people know, the more we can combat this,” he said.