West Cook News

To protect survivors of human trafficking, state Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton (D-Western Springs) proposed expanding the Address Confidentiality Program (ACP) to enable those victims to keep their home address private.

Senate Bill 593, which passed the state Senate in a 56-0 vote, would add victims of human trafficking to the other categories of victims protected by the ACP, Hilton said in a tweet.

“More survivors of violent crime would be able to keep their home addresses private as participants in the Illinois Address Confidentiality Program under my proposal to expand protections for survivors of human trafficking,” the Western Springs lawmaker said. “Currently, the ACP provides survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking with a substitute address to use in place of their actual home, school and work addresses in public records.”

This is not the first expansion to those covered by the law, according to a press release posted to Hilton’s official website. The ACP began as a protection for domestic violence survivors, and sexual assault and stalking survivors were added last year.

The bill also protects household members associated with victims, the release states. The substitute address provided under the program enables victims to maintain public records while ensuring that an abuser can’t use the information to track them down.