When Sarasota Police Captain Demetri Konstantopoulos began his career in law enforcement 30 years ago, he never envisioned that his true “calling” would be devoting his life to combatting sex trafficking in Florida.
Today, Captain Konstantopoulos oversees the Support Services Division of the Sarasota Police Department and is an advocate against sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. However, before promotion, when he was the sergeant of the Street Crimes Unit, he collaborated with Selah Freedom, a Sarasota-based anti-human trafficking nonprofit, to create the “Turn Your Life Around” prostitution diversion program to identify victims of sex trafficking and provide them with the resources and strategies to help them escape the bondage of prostitution. “A core group of us created the TYLA program from scratch and set the foundation for years to come. Selah and the police department have continued the mission with the State Attorney’s Office and the courts with a prostitution diversion program. The basis behind TYLA is to change an unsuccessful process by dealing with the core issues surrounding prostitution and sex trafficking by finding a more permanent, humane, and fiscally responsible solution. “Arrests alone were not making a dent with the prostitution problem and its high rate of recidivism.”
“We (Sarasota Police) were the first in Florida to start a program like this. We trained our department criminal justice stakeholders, and initiated a community awareness campaign, and then started going out and training other law enforcement agencies throughout Florida, as well as the state attorneys’ offices, Captain Konstantopoulos says. “The principles we follow with TYLA are now best practices throughout Florida and nationwide. There is much more of an awareness of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation in our society.”
Captain Konstantopoulos is so passionate about his work that he continued his training to be more informed about the sex trafficking epidemic that affects not only Florida (the # 3 state for sex trafficking), but also every zip code in America. “Fueled by social media and pop culture, our children are more susceptible to being recruited into sex trafficking and child pornography, and the epidemic knows no boundaries as every ethnic group is at risk and every socio-economic level is affected.”
The Captain’s training and experience include serving as a Task Force Officer with the FBI, working as a Deputy Sheriff with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, being a Narcotics Detective, and being a SWAT Team Leader. He also graduated from the 289th session of the FBI National Academy. He holds a Master of Science in Public Safety from Liberty University, a Bachelor of Applied Science in Homeland Security, and a Graduate Certificate in Criminal Justice Education.
This combination of experience and education has prepared Captain Konstantopoulos for his current leadership role in the Sarasota Police Department and he will forever be devoted to educating others on the dark realities of sex trafficking.
Selah Freedom executive director Stacey Efaw says, “Captain Konstantopoulos has been a Godsend to our organization. He and his team have worked tirelessly to rescue young men and women – many of whom have been sexually assaulted since childhood.”
Reflecting on the beginning of the TYLA initiative, Captain Konstantopoulos admits, “Even as a veteran police officer, I was ignorant about sex trafficking and was skeptical about its link with prostitution. There wasn’t any training on the many forms of human trafficking when I was coming up as a police officer. Prostitution was labeled as a vice crime and not considered a form of sex trafficking. The root causes and the exploitation were not understood. Sex trafficking is slavery, and those who are sexually exploited as commodities for another person’s financial gain are indeed victims. Accepting this was the key to a paradigm shift in our philosophy and operations.”
Before the TYLA initiative, the Sarasota Police Department conducted undercover stings on the Tamiami Trail (a notorious hot spot for prostitution) to arrest both prostitutes and Johns (sex buyers) and take them straight to jail. “With TYLA, we still conducted undercover stings, but after the initial detention, we took the women to a substation where members of Selah were there to offer them the help they needed. The women were given the opportunity to start a detox program and get involved with TYLA to have their misdemeanors expunged. “You can do this or go to jail,” we’d tell them. Believe it or not, some opted for jail because they didn’t want to go through the painful detox program. They knew their pimp would bond them out, and they’d be back on the streets rather than starting this rigorous and painful detox/rehabilitation process. Trauma from childhood also played a large factor because, after detox, they had to face the pain of childhood sexual exploitation.”
We shifted our perspective and realized these girls were victims. The “old” way of thinking is that we thought the women made a conscious choice to be on the streets, and they could leave at any time if they wanted. NOT SO. Pimps were exploiting them for monetary gain and keeping them under control with drugs. We had to train all officers at the Sarasota Police Department about the sexual exploitation of these women and how their circumstances were rooted in childhood exploitations. It was a game-changer.”
With their paradigm shift, the Sarasota Police fundamentally changed previous practices. They stopped posting the women’s names/photos in the local papers after arrest, knowing that public shaming would add to their many layers of victimization, and they focused their attention on arresting the pimps, Johns, and anyone benefitting or complicit in sex trafficking, including illicit massage parlor operators.
The big challenge in America is for society and law enforcement agencies to recognize that sex trafficking is an epidemic and that there is a dire need to raise more awareness and educate the public about the root cause of the problem.
“The criminal justice systems (local, state, and federal) have come a long way over the last decade with their response to sex trafficking. The big challenges for law enforcement in America revolve around budgetary and staffing challenges, which makes having sex trafficking units in many cities a luxury. It’s more than just a law enforcement problem. It’s a community problem, and everyone needs to be educated: social service organizations, teachers, hospital workers, hotel/motel operators, and anyone who might encounter someone being sex trafficked. Collaboration is needed!
While his spare time is a fleeting moment in his pursuit to end sex trafficking, he treasures life at home with his wife. The couple has six children and one grandchild.
“I’m blessed,” he says. “My involvement in the TYLA program changed my life professionally and personally. As a career cop, there aren’t many times when you can see the long-term result of your work. When you find a person at rock bottom and give them a pathway to transform their life, and they do it, the feeling is overpowering. I thank God for guiding my path and will continue to do His work.”
See Captain Konstantopoulos with other guest speakers from Homeland Security, Selah Freedom, University of South Florida and more at the Human Trafficking Summit on January 30th. Tickets, Sponsorships and More Info.