While most of us spent Super Bowl Sunday watching the most talked about commercials, Lady Gaga slaying the halftime show, and stuffing our faces with way too many wings, chips and dip, more than 700 sex buyers and 20 pimps were being arrested.
In an effort to crack down on sex trafficking, The National Johns Suppression Initiative (NJSI), a coalition of 30 law enforcement agencies across 15 states, joined forces on Sunday, January 18, to coordinate a sting operation.
It is estimated that there are as many as 30 million slaves in the world today who are victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Eighty percent of which are women, and half are children. Expert opinion and research suggest spikes in sex trafficking during large-scale events such as the Super Bowl.
According to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois, both the number of arrests and the participation level were the highest to date for Super Bowl operations since the initiative began 13 years ago.