The Ohio Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Commission works with the Human Trafficking Initiative team and its partners to develop methods for ending human trafficking. The commission meets quarterly and includes mission-focused subcommittees:
- Demand Reduction
- Healthcare
- Law Enforcement
- Legal and Legislative
- Research/Gap Analysis and Data
- Public Awareness
- Victim Services
In late 2019, Attorney General Dave Yost reconvened the Ohio Human Trafficking Commission, which originated under Attorney General Richard Cordray and then was reconstituted by Attorney General Mike DeWine.
Yost additions
The new commission added a healthcare subcommittee for the first time and brought a vital voice into the conversation: survivors of human trafficking. These Advisory Council Ambassadors ensure that those with lived experience inform and impact the work being done through the Human Trafficking Commission.
Victim Services Subcommittee
The Victim Service Subcommittee recommends best practices for human trafficking programs looking to enact standards and practices that are culturally sensitive and trauma-responsive. Through advocacy, leadership and accountability, the subcommittee also emphasizes diverse representation in the field and the historically marginalized voices of human trafficking survivors. Goals include developing a statewide service matrix and strengthening Ohio’s response to labor trafficking.
Legal and Legislative Subcommittee
The Legal and Legislative Subcommittee’s purpose is two-fold: first, to evaluate Ohio’s current laws on human trafficking, how those laws are implemented and what legal training is available; and second, to focus on what changes and legal trainings could improve the state’s response to human trafficking.
Public Awareness Subcommittee
The Public Awareness Subcommittee provides guidance to state residents and anti-trafficking coalitions to increase knowledge about human trafficking in general, myths and misconceptions, and resources.
Healthcare Subcommittee
The Healthcare Subcommittee aims to improve care of victims by promoting trauma-informed practices and increasing medical professionals’ awareness of trafficking. Goals include improving data collection, including through a pilot program at a small number of hospitals.
Research/Gap Analysis and Data Subcommittee
The Research/Gap Analysis and Data Subcommittee seeks to identify areas in which better data can improve Ohio’s response to human trafficking. Methods include searching out gaps or inconsistencies in data collected, establishing criteria for what makes credible data and examining current databases to see how collection and dissemination can be improved.
Demand Reduction Subcommittee
The Demand Reduction Subcommittee seeks to decrease social and legal tolerance for human exploitation, including shifting behaviors and values among Ohio’s population and, in particular, men, who drive the vast majority of demand for sex trafficking. Other goals include supporting passage of relevant legislation, encouraging supply chain transparency to ensure state and private services are not bolstered by forced labor or child labor, and growing a network of actors to collectively push demand reduction.
Law Enforcement Subcommittee
The Law Enforcement Subcommittee focuses on issues that affect how Ohio’s peace officers encounter and take on human trafficking. Goals include addressing trafficking issues within the hotel and lodging industry in Ohio; exploring how to improve trafficking-related data collection; and obtaining trauma-informed interview training for all human trafficking investigators in the state.