After being ranked among states with the worst human trafficking laws in 2013, the Polaris Project, a Washington D.C.-based trafficking policy and victims advocacy group, gave Colorado its top ranking, it was announced Wednesday.
National rankings for 2014. (The Polaris Project)
On July 1, , passed in the legislature this spring, aligning the state’s trafficking laws with federal ones in what many hope will be a monumental shift in the way offenders in the Centennial State are prosecuted.
Colorado was one of 39 states to pass new human trafficking laws in 2013, according to Polaris. The non-governmental organization also ranked Colorado among states with most improved laws in 2014.
The higher ranking follows improved laws nationwide in national reform aimed at boosting convictions and aiding victims.
In Colorado, where trafficking has become prevalent due to the highways crisscrossing the state, that could mean big impacts.
The statute is being used for the first time in Jefferson County, where Christopher Sullivan — that included several carjackings — is facing child sex-trafficking charges.
Sullivan, 37, to travel with him to Colorado this summer, helping sell her sexual services to men at a Lakewood motel, according to court records.
“We feel we are now, legislatively, in pretty good shape to deal with the cases going forward,” Colorado’s Attorney General, John Suthers, told me last month.
