A bipartisan invoice geared toward streamlining Illinois’ response to human trafficking was signed into regulation by Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday.
The regulation lays the framework for a coordinated trauma-informed response throughout state businesses to higher handle the numerous wants of victims of human trafficking, which incorporates crimes of intercourse and labor trafficking.
“It’s a fashionable type of slavery, that’s what it truly is; you’re treating a human being like a chunk of property, quite than a human being,” Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly mentioned.
“Whereas there could also be numerous legal guidelines on the books, and people legal guidelines may be efficient, this laws actually takes it to the subsequent stage and permits us to have a way more efficient effort as a state at addressing these shortcomings and actually being very considerate and ahead considering.”
The Nationwide Human Trafficking Hotline obtained 792 contacts from Illinois in 2024, up from 696 in 2023. In the meantime, in fiscal yr 2024, 448 trafficking survivors reported receiving companies from state businesses, up from 321 the yr prior, in keeping with the Illinois Legal Justice Data Authority.
State police be aware all trafficking numbers are possible solely a fraction of the variety of precise victims in Illinois, as human trafficking is usually underreported and underidentified.
The brand new regulation additionally mandates the event of standardized victim-centered coaching for social service and regulation enforcement businesses.
“Much more essential than simply getting the dangerous man helps the great man, serving to the one that’s been victimized, who’s been traumatized, have the ability to put their life again collectively,” Kelly mentioned. “And that’s extraordinarily difficult.”
Kelly acknowledged with plans for elevated coaching and enforcement, there may be all the time a cry for extra sources and funding, however mentioned many of those packages have been steadily constructed out.
Below the regulation, the Division of Kids and Household Companies might be required to create a brand new unit to coordinate human trafficking companies and prevention.
Illinois State Senator Julie Morrison (D-Twenty ninth) sponsored the laws and mentioned it could “shut gaps” in present efforts to handle trafficking.
“By breaking down silos between businesses, we are able to join survivors to compassionate assist sooner and make it harder for trafficking networks to function within the state,” Morrison mentioned in a press release.
The regulation takes impact Jan. 1, 2026.
