Long Island sex trafficking and how to stop it aim of Hicksville panel discussion

When Charles Razenson spotted what he believed was a hub of illegal sex work in his neighborhood, he called friends he knew in the Nassau County Police Department. Razenson said that was the last time he saw the activity in the abandoned factory.

"Within two to three weeks, it was eliminated," Razenson, 73, and the president of the Hicksville Chamber of Commerce, told Newsday.

But that was 40 years ago, and times have changed. In the last five years alone, arrests for prostitution or illegal massages at salons, spas and other establishments on Long Island have skyrocketed more than 1,200%, according to a Newsday investigation of sex trafficking in the region.

On Wednesday evening, Razenson hosted a panel discussion at the Hicksville Athletic Center on illegal sex work and trafficking and how the community can get involved to help stop both. The event took place next door to an establishment Newsday has previously reported was an alleged hub for illegal sex work.

For about an hour, the panel heard questions from the two dozen audience members about law enforcement efforts to curb illegal sex work and trafficking when it is suspected. Audience members also asked what they can do and noted how after police raid a business suspected of illegal activity, in some cases, it opens again, often employing the same women.

The panelists included Nassau County Police Det. Lt. Matthew Landman, Bahar Ostadan, a Newsday journalist who has reported on sex trafficking on Long Island, Nassau Police Chief of Detectives Nick Stillman and Timothy Zike, deputy commissioner of the Town of Oyster Bay planning department.

"It became a problem that I couldn’t solve," Razenson said of the suspected illegal sex work. "But at least I can get the issue out to the public and maybe something good can come of it, especially for these women."

For some in attendance, their own safety and that of their neighbors was a primary concern. When a Newsday reporter told attendee Maria Gaynes that Wednesday's meeting was taking place next door to a spa that had allegedly been a hub for prostitution and unlicensed massages, she was not surprised.

"I’m concerned, especially as a young woman. It seems like it’s going on a lot," Gaynes, 35, of Hicksville, said. "A lot of people are under the false assumption that things aren’t happening right in their backyard."

Newsday has reported that police have arrested hundreds of women during raids but their employers and male customers often escape unscathed.

"I really don’t think it’s fair," Gaynes told Newsday before the meeting. "There’s a lot of different parties involved. It seems like a lot of the women really don’t have a choice. ... Everyone involved, including anyone that’s soliciting services, should also be prosecuted."

Landman, the commanding officer of the Nassau police department’s vice squad, which handles human trafficking cases, told the audience that the nature of the department’s operations makes catching male customers in the act difficult.

"We send undercovers into these establishments, so obviously we know what transpires with them. We’re not in there in the other rooms seeing what’s transpiring in the other rooms," he said.

Long Island accounted for nearly 70% of all prostitution and unlicensed massage arrests statewide in 2025, according to Newsday.

"In most counties in New York, police departments arrest 10 people a year for unlicensed massage and prostitution," Ostadan, of Newsday, told the group. "Long Island, between Nassau and Suffolk counties, was in the hundreds."