I reached out to Lois Lee after I heard the classified-ad website Backpage was shutting down its adult-services section. In , Lee founded Children of the Night , perhaps one of the most widely known national hotline, shelter and social-service nonprofits for trafficked minors. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported that its cyber tipline has logged 45, reports of suspected child sex trafficking, most from ads found in Backpage.
In a scathing report , the U. I figured wrong. She did acknowledge in the statement that Backpage has also been a key donor to Children of the Night. Backpage was an opportunity to better attack the problem. I wanted to hear from vice cops who work in the trenches on this issue. Two veteran sex-crimes cops I know share her views and concerns. While a Minneapolis cop, Andrew Schmidt helped dismantle in what was described then as the largest juvenile prostitution ring operating in the country.
Grant Snyder has used Backpage to bust pimps and rescue prostituted minors during his years as a vice cop in Minneapolis. No doubt traffickers will find other sites to advertise, as many migrated to Backpage after Craigslist, citing similar pressure, closed down its adult category six years ago. As morally repugnant as I or others may find a third-party entity making a buck off a prostituted teen, Lee and others make a thought-provoking argument that a key investigative tool has been lost in the fight to locate and rescue some of our kids.
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