“Within five miles of where we live, someone is being trafficked,” said Commanding Officer, Investigative Sergeant Erin Meunkle, with Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon’s Anti Trafficking Initiative (SATI).
Meunkle delivered a riveting hour-long presentation at the Patchogue-Medford Library on April 9.
“Among the local communities are Sayville, Shirley, Islip, Sound Beach,” Meunkle said.
Incidents take place in residential homes as well as local hotels.
“(Victims) are recruited at malls, drug treatment centers, group homes, shelters, schools, clubs, and hangouts,” she added.
Defined on Sheriff Toulon’s website, human trafficking is holding someone in compelled service for labor or commercial sex acts, using whatever means necessary, whether physical or psychological, via force, fraud, or coercion.
This was the first such workshop sponsored by Legislator Dominick Thorne. He promised that additional workshops were planned.
“I’ll be moving this [workshop] around in my district,” Thorne said. “We’re at the top 20% in trafficking nationwide in Suffolk County… Our job is to find the traffickers, arrest them, and lock them up.”
However, locating the predators requires education about what to look for and how to alert the sheriff’s office.
“[This crime] is worse than drugs; people can be used over and over for a lifetime. We have a scourge killing this country, and one of the things I want to do is educate the public,” Thorne added.
Meunkle’s presentation drew gasps at times, especially when photos of abused victims were shown.
“We want you to know the signs and symptoms,” she said. “Mostly what’s fueling it is the opioid crisis. But there are also over 30 websites to get these human trafficking services.”
There are also 21 apps that parents should be aware of, she said.
Meunkle added that the victims could be neighbors, nieces, nephews, and friends.
“The populations include mostly vulnerable people who don’t have a support system at home,” she said. “Some have a mental health issue or are homeless. The sex traffickers are master manipulators and target people they find experiencing hardship. Sometimes, in the beginning, the victim sees them as a rescuer, who promises a safe place to go and offers financial or emotional support. Then they isolate them and start pushing boundaries.”
Victimization signs include a person who is disoriented or confused, bruises in various stages of healing, or someone who is often in the company of a person who seems to be in control of where they go or whom they talk to.
Physical abuse examples include withholding food, sleep, and assault. Then there’s debt bondage.
“The victims are trapped in a cycle of debt; the traffickers take their documents and threaten deportation,” Meunkle said.
SATI was initiated by Sheriff Toulon in 2018, the first of its kind nationally, as a jail-based prevention unit.
“It’s important that we have the advantage of having victims over time to withdraw from their lifestyle and get information,” Meunkle said.
According to Vicki DiStefano, public information officer for the Sheriff’s office, since SATI’s inception, staff have conducted 7,772 interviews and identified 357 victims. They’ve also identified 220 traffickers.
“A lot of times we see a substance-related charge from their addiction, like robbery,” DiStefano said about the victims jailed. “It doesn’t have anything to do with prostitution. We’re generally pre-trial detention or those with a lower charge, less than a year.”
Meunkle said among the SATI partnerships are Suffolk County police, the F.B.I., the District Attorney’s office, the Department of Homeland Security, non-governmental agencies, and faith-based groups.
“We make sure the victims in our facility are safe. Sometimes the trafficker will also be in the facility, and we make sure they don’t run into each other. We try to keep them from witness tampering.”
Meunkle said the SATI program staff uses screening tools to discern what services are needed: counseling, substance abuse treatment, in-house vocational training, social services, assisting with identification documents, or help transitioning with housing, food, and clothing.
Correction Officer Investigator Dominick Verni and Lieutenant Rob Meunkle, both part of the Sheriff’s Transition and Reentry Team (START) Resource Center, joined Sgt. Erin Meunkle afterward for questions.
There were 25 attendees in the audience, but Patchogue-Medford Library Director of Education and Outreach, Michele Cayea, who arranged the conference with Thorne’s office, had the cameras rolling for a Zoom link recording so it could be shared with patrons and other libraries.
If you suspect sex trafficking, call 911 or Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS, the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888/ or text “HELP” to 233733. The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office Anti Trafficking Initiative at suffolkcountysheriffsoffice.com offers a free resource download.
