I'd like to remind readers that Matt Gaetz was never featured on this database.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12947183/Florida-human-trafficking-database-names-mugshots-perverts-caught-paying-sex-VANISHES-lawmakers-failed-agree-extend-it.html
Florida human trafficking database with names and mugshots of p***s caught paying for sex VANISHES after lawmakers failed to agree to extend it
- A Florida database with names and mugshots of p***s convicted of paying for sex suddenly disappeared
- The Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database was set up in 2021
- Lawmakers didn't re-enact the database going into 2024 after reviewing its effectiveness at preventing sex trafficking networks.
By MARTHA WILLIAMS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 10:36 EST, 10 January 2024 | UPDATED: 10:45 EST, 10 January 2024
Florida's database with names and mugshots of people convicted of paying for sex suddenly disappeared on January 1, 2024.
The Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database was launched at the start of 2021, and racked up a list of hundreds of offenders, according to ABC.
The Database mysteriously vanished on January 1, 2024, along with a message saying that 'the section requiring the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to create and maintain the Solicitation for Prostitution Public Database stands repealed.'
Lawmakers had failed to re-enact the database going into 2024 - meaning that all of the convicted sex offenders and their mugshots disappeared without a trace.
The state was set to study the database's effectiveness and whether it was preventing human trafficking networks going into the New Year.
Senate Bill 540 and House Bill 851 set up the database, which included anyone convicted of 'soliciting, inducing, enticing or procuring another to commit prostitution, lewdness or assignation,' according to the Senate's bill - which was drafted by Democratic senator Lauren Book.
After being passed by the House and the Senate - it went to Governor Ron DeSantis's desk to be signed into action as part of his overall efforts to crack down on trafficking in Florida.
It was revealed that out of the 262 prostitution arrests in 2021 - just one made it on the database. He was the only one listed in the entire state.
A person has to be arrested and convicted of soliciting for prostitution - paying another for sex - after January 1, 2021, in order to be included on the database.
If a person does not commit a sexual offense for five years following the initial offense - they are automatically removed from the public database.
'The idea was to shame people,' State Attorney Andrew Warren told ABC.
For the entire year of 2021 - only one person was added to the database for soliciting an undercover deputy to perform a sex act for $25.
The one name massively underrepresented the accurate numbers and scale of human trafficking that occurs in Florida.
In reality, such soliciting is prevalent in the state's strip clubs, massage industry, adult entertainment, modeling studios and escort services says Dotti Groover-Skipper, a well-known, anti-human trafficking advocate in Tampa.
