Cypress is a city of approximately 50,000 residents located in Orange County, California near Anaheim, Garden Grove, Long Beach, Stanton, and Buena Park. Instances of prostitution and sex trafficking have been well-documented in the city and surrounding areas. This activity and its ancillary crimes have generated residential complaints to local law enforcement. Among the more serious crimes associated with the city’s commercial sex market is child sex trafficking. For example, in February, 2022, an extensive multijurisdictional sex trafficking enforcement operation was conducted in Orange County. The Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center coordinated “Operation Red Zone” in partnership with 11 local law enforcement agencies, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, and the Department of Homeland Security to identify victims of sex trafficking and apprehend their traffickers. In total, 56 suspects were arrested and 16 victims were recovered, including two juveniles under the age of 16. Of the arrested offenders, over four dozen were male sex buyers and sex traffickers ages 20 to 55 and residents of Orange and Los Angeles counties. Sex buyers and sex traffickers were arrested on charges including human trafficking, pimping and pandering, solicitation for sex, and narcotics. In addition, officers recovered one unregistered handgun.

To address issues of prostitution and sex trafficking, the Cypress Police Department has conducted at least three street-level reverse sting operations. One operation, conducted in conjunction with a larger narcotics investigation in the fall of 1992, placed female CPD officers undercover as decoys along Lincoln Avenue. As male sex buyers attempted to solicit sex from the officers, they were apprehended. Twelve male sex buyers were arrested as a result of the investigation.

In addition to reverse sting operations, local law enforcement has been known to apprehend sex buyers through alternative investigations or through residential reports to police. For example, in 1982, the Cypress Police Department and the Anaheim Police Department conducted an investigation into a local ‘pain clinic’ suspected of serving as a front for a prostitution operation. Following two weeks of audio/visual surveillance, officials from both departments executed a search warrant resulting in the arrest of two men on suspicion of pimping and pandering charges in addition to arresting 23 male sex buyers, all cited for solicitation of prostitution. Their identities were released by local law enforcement.