The United States Department of Justice estimates the crime of human trafficking generates $32 billion in profits annually worldwide. Trafficking is profitable because people are resalable and reusable, and unlike drugs and arms traffickers, human traffickers can continue to exploit their victims after the initial procurement. According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC), during the calendar year 2011, there were over 2,945 certified victims of human trafficking in the United States.
Since there are no direct ports of entry into the United States that exist in Riverside County, many believed that human trafficking crimes would not be prevalent in areas such as this; however, when the Sheriff and his staff began to take a closer look, it was evident that cases involving human trafficking were occurring in Riverside County. Since the identification of a human trafficking victim can be difficult, it was apparent that training and victim services had to play an intricate role in the formation of this taskforce. Many of the human trafficking victims identified in Riverside County belong to minority groups, some of whom are in the country illegally. A victim's immigration status makes identification and rescue of these victims problematic.