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Oakland County prosecutor urges tougher penalties, training and translation to fight human trafficking in Michigan
Summary
Oakland County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jason Dantis told the House Oversight Subcommittee on Child Welfare that Michigan’s human-trafficking counts understate the problem and urged stiffer penalties for buyers, rapid electronic-evidence processing, more training for police and medical staff, and funded translation services.
Jason Dantis, an assistant prosecuting attorney in the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office trafficking unit, told the House Oversight Subcommittee on Child Welfare that human trafficking in Michigan is substantially undercounted and that legislative action and funded supports are needed to improve prevention and prosecutions.
“I don’t believe any of those numbers,” Dantis said of public statistics, calling official counts the “bare minimum of what actually exists.” He told lawmakers the National Human Trafficking Hotline reported 779 signals from Michigan in 2023 and that Oakland County’s trafficking unit has received 83 requests for trafficking charges since about 2020–21, issuing charges in roughly 80 of those requests and seeing 58 requests since April 2023.
Dantis described a common three-party structure—trafficker, victim and client—and explained why victims, clients and traffickers alike…
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