At this point there is no interagency task force in New York addressing trafficking issues, said one disgruntled police official who has been eager to start trafficking investigations. You could put together a lot more cases here by the NYPD, and the federal agencies don't contribute the sources. They pay lip service to it, which is about all there is. Coordination is important, experts say, because a typical trafficking case with international dimensions may involve the local police, Immigration and Naturalization Service, FBI, Customs Service and the Department of State. Immigration crimes, which are often central to trafficking cases, are handled by federal authorities, not local prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors are also responsible for using the new federal anti-trafficking law.
In 1999, a meeting to bring together city police, INS, FBI and other federal agencies to discuss trafficking hit a roadblock when some federal officials could not agree on which office should host the confab. A meeting was ultimately held at police headquarters in Manhattan, but the sessions were not productive, one police official said. A persistent problem for police has been the reluctance of the women to cooperate with police. Even when the women are not arrested, when I tell them I am not going to charge them, that I just want them to tell their stories, they won' t talk to me, said Queens Executive Assistant District Attorney Jesse Sligh, who directs prostitution investigations. In 99 percent of the cases, the women do not carry any paperwork at the time of the arrest.