Have you seen this sign in a public bathroom when visiting a hotel or motel in New York?

News 12's Senior Reporter Tara Rosenblum highlighted the plight of human trafficking victims in 2018, which was followed by the passage of a law in New York that required hotels and motels to place these informational placards public restrooms.

The law, which was sponsored by New York state Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, aimed to help trafficking victims escape.

The Turn To Tara team just completed a yearlong investigation to see if the hotels and motels were in compliance with that law.

The team traveled to 105 hotels and found 87 of them were NOT in compliance - a total of more than 80% that disregarded the law.

What seemed to be even more staggering was that there was no enforcement of the signs, no fines and no inspections - despite a law requiring it.

The news came as a shock to David Ryan, director of the Westchester County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, who said he has personally delivered the signs to hundreds of hotels and motels.

His advice to those ignoring the law?

"I would hope you would 'out' them. Sometimes shame is how you comply, " said Ryan. "Stick that mic in their face and say, 'Hi, I'm Tara Rosenblum from News 12, you need to tell me why you aren't complying.'"

So, after calls and emails were not returned, the Turn To Tara team did just that - and showed up in person.

Some front desk staff seemed bewildered, while others refused to answer

The Turn to Tara team then brought the findings to New York state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who called it a dangerous enforcement gap in a state that ranks fourth nationally for human trafficking ...

...with more than 1,400 victims identified last year alone.

Melanie Thompson shared her story with the Turn To Tara team in 2018. She described being kidnapped at 12 and trafficked through hotels in upscale suburban areas in New York City.

Her detailed account helped push lawmakers in Albany to pass a law requiring hotels and motels to post human trafficking hotline signs in every public restroom.

Seven years after the first interview with Tara Rosenblum, they met up again in Midtown Manhattan.

She's now an advocate and a voice for survivors. She's gotten her bachelor's degree, is working on going to law school and works with the United Nations.

She said the noncompliance findings in the Turn To Tara report are infuriating.

"We're such a proud state and a proud city, and I want to continue to have that pride. It's really hard to do so when we're not taking the lives of sex trafficking survivors seriously," she said.

Assemblywoman Paulin fought to get the law on the books in 2018.

"It is shocking because I worked so closely with the hotels and with the unions to be able to make a law that was doable from their perspective, so it's just so upsetting to think that something that we worked collaboratively on isn't happening," she said.

Now she's working on drafting new legislation to add civil penalties for violators - $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for a second.

The Turn To Tara team also showed the numbers to the New York State Hospitality & Tourism Association, the group that represents half of all hotel operators across the state.

"I was shocked," said Mark Dorr, president of the New York State Hospitality & Tourism Association. "Because we worked with the Legislature for multiple years for that bill, and it's an important bill."

Dorr said he welcomes stronger enforcement - and just days after speaking with News 12, he said he planned to issue an urgent alert to his membership.

New Jersey and New York's top prosecutors also opened up to the Turn to Tara team about the gaps and the growing challenges of human trafficking.

In Suffolk County, New York, police said a woman used multiple social media platforms to recruit women from outside the United States to travel to the county on tourist visas for the purposes of prostitution.

In Trenton, New Jersey, 15 women were saved from a human trafficking ring that authorities said was run out of homes in Trenton and Camden.

The incidents happened just two days apart.

While the suspects are different, the playbook is the same - using control and fear on victims who can't escape, with police who struggle to keep up.

"We will not tolerate human trafficking - treating people, particularly women, as profit in the state of New Jersey," said New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin.

Platkin said his office has invested historic resources into cracking down on traffickers, including a new initiative called Stalls for Safety, a program modeled after New York's signage law that places QR-code flyers in public restrooms.

"We know tragically, frankly, that all too often, the only time someone who is a victim to human trafficking is alone, is in a bathroom stall," said Platkin. "And so this is what happens when you give survivors a voice. We put survivors at the table, and this is one of the ideas that came from that group of people."

While the campaign in New Jersey is voluntary, Platkin said the impact is measurable.

"Last year, we brought more human trafficking cases, just from my office, than occurred in the entire state of New Jersey in the four years that preceded it combined," said Platkin.

In Nassau County, New York, District Attorney Anne Donnelly said her office is working closely with Suffolk County to disrupt trafficking networks early and share intelligence across county lines.

"The main objective is to discover who's putting these girls in that position, and hopefully getting the girls out of those positions as early as we can," said Donnelly.

In Suffolk County, the fight against trafficking is getting a full-scale overhaul.

"We are in the top 20 percentile for human trafficking in the nation. This is a distinction that no county would want to have," said Suffolk County Deputy County Executive for Human Services Sylvia Diaz.

County officials recently unveiled "Operation Safe and Lasting Return," a sweeping new initiative that creates protocols for sharing intelligence across federal, state and local agencies when a child goes missing.

It was launched in the wake of a high-profile case of a 14-year-old girl who went missing for weeks. The state Office of Children and Family Services has identified more than 200 others at risk for human trafficking in Suffolk County as well.

MORE: New charges filed in case of missing Patchogue teen found on boat in Islip

In Connecticut, a damning new audit uncovered just how deep the systemic failures go when it comes to helping trafficking survivors escape.

A state task force funded by the U.S. Department of Justice mapped the path of victims across 169 towns and cities. It found a tangled, inconsistent system that too often leaves survivors without shelter, advocacy or trauma care.

Last year, the Connecticut Department of Children and Families handled more than 300 human trafficking cases, and investigations are up 200%, according to the Regionalized Human Trafficking Recovery Taskforce.

Advocates said Connecticut has made progress, especially when it comes to police training.

Connecticut made Trafficking in Persons a separate crime in 2006 and later created the Trafficking in Persons Council to recommend changes to lawmakers.