Long Island authorities must not ignore sex trafficking

The Gilgo Beach murders are a horrific reminder of what sex trafficking can do to the young women and teenagers caught up in selling themselves for money or drugs amid the ever-present threat of violence. When alleged murderer Rex Heuermann was charged with four of these murders — after a decadelong hunt for a suspect — local law enforcement officials were quick to claim credit for his arrest.

But as Newsday investigative reporter Sandra Peddie shows in her recent stories, the overall problem of sex trafficking on Long Island continues as if Gilgo never happened. The statistics and case studies cited force us to conclude that many of the fundamental lessons from these shocking murders have been ignored.

Sex trafficking cases on Long Island have dropped from a peak of 77 in 2017 to just five cases in 2021, according to the latest state criminal data. This consistent downward trend in actual arrests and prosecutions is a far cry from the aggressive public image promulgated by authorities.

In Suffolk County, prosecutors have heralded getting federal and state grant money to fight this problem, while the actual police unit combating human trafficking has been slashed. In Nassau, where county police have no human trafficking unit, arrests of prostitutes and sex buyers are in sharp decline. Despite recent headlines about Gilgo, prostitution and sex-buyer arrests peaked a decade ago, when the unsolved murders were first making news.

Perhaps most disturbing is that legally mandated state services for sex trafficking victims — designed to help them deal with the health consequences of their criminal exploitation — are ignored and little used. For experts familiar with family violence and the underlying causes of sex trafficking, the current situation on Long Island is unacceptable. “Here we are, roughly 13 years since the Gilgo murders, and not much has changed,” said Keith Scott, a Long Island University adjunct professor. “There’s not much in the way of prosecutions and not much in the way of services available for sex workers.”

In both counties, police, prosecutors and county officials must do more to prevent this terrible abuse. Schoolteachers, guidance counselors and county Child Protective Services officials must be vigilant in recognizing the signs of this abuse. As one of its teenage victims, Jasmine Krokowski, later explained, “I felt failed by the system.”

Taxpayer money earmarked for this problem isn’t being used properly to combat it. County legislature committees that oversee the police must make sure that sex trafficking is part of each department’s crime-fighting agenda. It is unacceptable for Nassau police not to respond to requests for basic statistical information about arrests for these crimes.

Prosecutors seeking praise for bringing the Gilgo Beach murders to a just conclusion must also make sure that law enforcement reduces the chances of such heinous crimes happening again. The reasons why sex trafficking still persists on Long Island cannot be ignored.