Detainment of Bronco Ryan Murphy calls attention to prostitution by human trafficking

The sting that netted Denver Broncos practice player Ryan Murphy was one of many over the past several weeks.

Murphy was detained near a Motel 6 here on Tuesday as part of an ongoing attempt to crack down on prostitution by a human trafficking task force that has been ramping up its efforts for months.

"He was in the area or somehow involved," Sergeant James Jensen of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday. "We detained him and during our investigation we found he was not involved in any criminal activity and released him at the scene."

Others were cited, including Murphy's brother. Murphy, in town for Super Bowl 50 on Sunday, was sent home from the Bay Area by Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak, even though he wasn't arrested or charged. Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera used it as a teaching moment for his team, only hours after former Falcons safety Eugene Robinson addressed Carolina players about his solicitation of an undercover police officer before Super Bowl XXIII in 1999.

Over the past several years, more and more attention has been paid to prostitution and human trafficking during Super Bowl week. Santa Clara County has spent years building awareness of these issues, naming January 2014 as "Human Trafficking Awareness Month" and putting up billboards alerting people to the problem as the Super Bowl drew near.

"In the last three weeks we have done eight operations," says Jensen. "Out of those eight we have cited and released around 20 males."

The U.S. State Department definition of trafficking is "the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion."

There is an argument over whether human trafficking actually does increase during the month leading up to the Super Bowl – some say it's a fallacy – but the attention has proven a boon to law enforcement agents who find it an opportunity to get the word out about a topic most men would prefer to ignore. Last year, nearly 22,000 calls were placed to the national human trafficking hotline.

"If the Super Bowl gives us an opportunity to discuss this as a community, that's a very good thing," says Cindy Chavez, co-chair of the Santa Clara County Human Trafficking Commission.

Although there's an effort to cite both solicitors and pimps, there's also a push to help victims. Nearly $1 million was budgeted here last year for case management, housing and legal assistance for those coerced into prostitution. Victim advocates are involved in each of these sting operations, according to Jensen, and he says "around 20 females" have been given resources or other support in an attempt to extricate them from their situations.

"We look at this as a human aspect, not a criminal aspect," Jensen says. "We try to be victim's advocates."

Last year in Arizona, the FBI reported that 18 of the 27 underage workers recovered from the sex trade in the Phoenix area were helped in the month leading up to the Super Bowl.

So the weeks leading up to Super Bowl 50 may not be the start or the end of the efforts to stop human trafficking, but it's clearer each year that awareness has been raised of how poorly victims are often treated. And the trauma of abuse has psychological, physical and financial effects long after relationships of power are broken.

"A lot of these victims, when they are no longer under the thumb of those abusing them, they often have nothing," says Chavez.

Being in the wrong place at the wrong time severely affected Murphy, but the headlines he created fell right into what law enforcement officials feel is a crucial project for the greater good.