Santa Clarita is a city in Los Angeles County, CA, that has a population of approximately 225,000 residents. Prostitution has been identified by law enforcement as a problem in the city, and residents and business owners have complained to law enforcement about prostitution. Reports of sexual assaults of prostituted women have also been documented.

In response to such concerns, and a wide range of additional crimes always accompanying the sex trade, police have included the targeting of consumer-level demand for commercial sex. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Santa Clarita Valley Station officers have conducted street-level reverse stings in the community since 1993, which have garnered dozens of arrests of sex buyers. For example, the first known street-level reverse sting in 1993, in which undercover female officers posed as prostituted persons, resulted in the arrest of 32 male sex buyers.

In May, 2019 the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force, along with deputies from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, conducted a web-based prostitution and sex trafficking operation that resulted in the arrest of five male sex buyers for soliciting prostitution. In addition, one man was arrested for pandering. His identity was released by police to local media outlets. According to reports, the arrested sex buyers had responded to decoy ads police posted on websites known for prostitution, and arranged to meet undercover officers at a local motel in Santa Clarita for the purposes of commercial sex. Participating agencies included Santa Clarita Valley Station, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department (LAUSD), and the Los Angeles County Probation Department.