Oakland County prosecutor urges tougher penalties, training and translation to fight human trafficking in Michigan

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 often resist cooperating with law enforcement. He emphasized that most exploitation of minors involves manipulation or grooming rather than stranger abduction, saying the issue is amplified by social media and the internet.

“For a trafficker, cooperation means an end to their source of income. For the client, they risk personal consequences… For the victim, they can risk everything, including their lives,” Dantis said.

He urged lawmakers to consider raising penalties for purchasers of commercial sex as a legislated deterrent. Dantis said trafficking and transportation offenses carry maximum penalties of up to 20 years, while purchasers of commercial sex as adults commonly face what he described as “a mere 93 days or $500,” and purchasing sex with a minor carries a potential five-year sentence.

Beyond sentencing, Dantis pressed for investments in training, victim services and data tools. He described practical prosecutorial techniques—rapid electronic downloads of phones, “alternate proofs” such as text messages and online ads, and close coordination with victim-advocacy groups—that have helped Oakland County locate victims and secure charges when survivors become willing to cooperate.

“We try and have it dumped the same day…Phones are a lifeline for these women,” he said, describing efforts to return devices quickly while preserving evidence.

Dantis also raised operational hurdles that impede prosecutions: language barriers in non-English cases, privacy constraints for medical staff under HIPAA, and persistent jail tampering in which traffickers call victims from custody. He suggested state funding for on-call translators at agencies and support for expensive AI or data-processing tools that can triage evidence from multiple devices.

Committee members asked whether education or legislation should come first; Dantis recommended attacking the purchaser base legislatively and cited Texas’ reclassification of purchase-of-sex offenses as a model that state trainers reported reduced case numbers, while acknowledging that public data and comparisons have limits.

Members also pressed for local data on failures to appear and bail; Dantis said he could provide lists for closed cases but could not supply open-case specifics during the hearing. He concluded by describing partnerships with local agencies such as Haven and Hope Against Trafficking to provide immediate services during raids and to encourage survivors to engage with prosecutors.

The committee took no legislative votes on trafficking policy at the hearing. Representative St. Germaine moved to approve the minutes; the motion passed. Representative Conlin moved to excuse absent members; the motion prevailed and the subcommittee adjourned.