State police superintendent Col. Brendan P. Doherty finishes the Pledge of Allegiance at a rally against human trafficking and supporting tougher prostitution laws. The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE — A diverse crowd of 275 to 300 protesters crammed the State House rotunda Tuesday evening to demand that lawmakers enact legislation to combat sex-trafficking in Rhode Island.

The protesters — including members of the clergy, victims’ advocates and state and local police — said a better law is needed to enable law enforcement officials to properly investigate and prosecute sex-traffickers, particularly in cases involving minors.

They came from cities and suburbs, carrying signs that read “Free the Captives — Stop Human Trafficking,” “Hold Sex Traffickers Accountable” and “What if they were your daughters?” They cheered when state police Detective Capt. David Neill stood at a microphone and declared that “the exploitation of minors must be stopped.”

And they fell silent as they listened to the story of sex-trafficking survivor Tina Frundt, founder and executive director of Courtney’s House, a social service organization for sex-trafficking victims in Washington, D.C.

Frundt, 35, has become a national leader in the effort to combat sex-trafficking, testifying before Congress and appearing on CNN and The Oprah Winfrey Show, among others. She was 13 years old and had spent her years in and out of foster homes when she met a man more than twice her age who called himself her boyfriend. He bought her candy, she said, and gave her rides to middle school.

The traffickers, she said, are predators who can sense vulnerability. “They look for those girls with their heads hung low.”

Legislation pending in the General Assembly would mandate harsher penalties — fines of no less than $40,000 and up to life imprisonment — for trafficking for sex someone younger than 18, regardless of whether the minor testified to coercion. Identical House and Senate bills are being sponsored by Rep. Joanne M. Giannini (the recently amended version) and Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, both Providence Democrats.

The support from law enforcement for the legislation is a milestone for the rally’s organizers, the Coalition Against Human Trafficking, which formed three years ago after a forum in Providence on human trafficking and the exploitation of women and children in the sex industry. The 2006 forum was sponsored by Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline and the National Council of Jewish Women. But in the years that followed, divisions arose between law enforcement officials who were focused on how to prosecute prostitution and sex-trafficking, and victims’ advocates and women’s groups, who were opposed to prosecuting the women, whom they see as victims.

Since then, leaders of the anti-trafficking coalition have worked to win the support of state and local police. That support was evident at yesterday’s rally, where the speakers included Cranston police detective division Commander Robert Ryan, who said that he was representing Cranston Mayor Allan W. Fung. He said that Fung and the Cranston Police Department fully support the legislation.

The current trafficking law, enacted in 2007, is inadequate, Ryan said, because it is “devoid of clear-cut definitions and provisions” and requires that victims younger than 18 “prove” that they are victims of trafficking, defined as “force, fraud or coercion.” State police Detective Commander Capt. David Neill told the crowd that the legislation also would require training to help police detectives and investigators become more adept at identifying victims of human trafficking. The legislation also would require collaboration by the various state and federal law enforcement agencies, he said, where there currently is none.

“It’s important to know that these people are victims,” Neill said, “and should be treated as such.”

Members of the coalition say that they have identified 32 brothels in Rhode Island, including 19 in Providence. Coalition members say that women who work in these brothels — many of them Asian — may have been forced or coerced into prostitution by traffickers who brought them into the country. The brothels, the police say, often purport to be spas.

Warwick police and immigration agents raided one such “spa” on April 9. Warwick Mayor Scott Avedesian was among the politicians who spoke at yesterday’s rally in support of the legislation.

Neither the Providence mayor nor any representative of the Providence Police Department spoke at yesterday’s rally. Cicilline’s press secretary, Karen Southern, could not be reached for comment last night.

Rhode Island is the only state in the country, except for certain counties in Nevada, which has no prohibition against prostitution that occurs indoors.

Two separate bills that would make prostitution a crime, regardless of where it occurs, have also been introduced in the General Assembly. The coalition — which is against prosecuting the prostitutes — has taken no position on those bills.

larditi@projo.com