Santa Clara County officials and the District Attorney's Office told the Human Trafficking Commission on Dec. 15 that they are ramping up law-enforcement and service responses ahead of major 2026 sporting events and that county funding shortfalls could limit services for survivors.

Lieutenant Josh Singleton, speaking for the District Attorney's Office Human Trafficking Task Force, said investigators will stand up an operational center in Sunnyvale for the Super Bowl operational window and requested $27,456 in overtime for task-force personnel. "For Super Bowl specifically, we're requesting $27,456 in overtime," Singleton said, adding that temporary assignments of five additional district-attorney investigators are planned to support operational weeks.

Singleton described training rollouts for local law enforcement and private partners, and summarized an earlier multiagency investigation, Operation Family Ties, which he said led to five arrests, the identification of about 40 commercial workers and the recovery of 18 victims on the takedown day, with about $1,300,000 in assets seized.

County deputy county executive Casey Halkin summarized the county's funding for gender-based violence and trafficking support, saying the county allocates nearly $20,000,000 a year to those services and that roughly $13.7 million is administered through the Office of Gender-Based Violence Prevention. Halkin noted that $900,000 is dedicated specifically for legal services and roughly $140,000 is reserved for trainings and consulting. She warned that federal funding reductions (including large decreases to VOCA) and changes from a bill referenced in the meeting as "HR1" could further strain services for survivors.

Caroline Glessman of Evident Change presented community assessment findings that drew on hotline and county crime datasets. She reported that, for earlier multi-year periods covered in the assessment, most local reports involved sex trafficking venues such as illicit massage businesses, hotels and private residences, that 70% of victims in the county dataset were female, and that younger victims made up an increasing share of reports.

After questions about cross-referencing probation and child-welfare data, emergency housing availability and training capacity, Co-chair Rosen moved to "receive the report and forward the funding and resource gaps presented today in human trafficking response to the full board for consideration as part of both the mid year and FY 2026-27 budget processes." The motion was seconded and approved unanimously. County staff and presenters were asked to pursue follow-up work with housing, probation and other departments to identify emergency housing and staffing solutions before the Super Bowl operational window.

The commission directed staff to prepare the legislative file and follow-up briefings for commissioners and county departments in advance of the next commission meeting.