Rep. Eric Watson, R-ClevelandNASHVILLE – State Rep. Eric Watson, R-Cleveland, will visit Washington, D.C., next Thursday for a conference hosted by Vice President Joe Biden’s office on the “epidemic” of human sex trafficking across the country.
Watson, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, is joining more than two dozen officials from other states to discuss how they are cracking down on such criminal activity.
He will detail challenges facing Tennessee as well as how state and local law enforcement agencies have worked together to stop and prevent such trafficking, Watson said in a news release.
“Tennessee, in many ways, is a hot spot for this particularly disturbing form of illegal activity – we’ve got to put a stop to that,” Watson said in the release. “I’m hopeful this meeting at the White House will serve as a jumping-off point for increased cooperation between all levels of law enforcement so we can do just that.”
Hamilton County is among eight counties statewide that reported more than 100 minor cases of human sex trafficking over a 24-month period, according to a 2011 Tennessee Bureau of Investigation report. The survey defines human trafficking as “a for-profit sex act that is induced by force, fraud or coercion or in which the person performing such an act is under the age of 18 years.”