Schenectady is a city of approximately 67,000 residents, located 20 miles northwest of Albany. It is the county seat of Schenectady County, New York. Street prostitution has been reported in the city for over forty years. Additionally, in the early 1980s, police had identified the city as a “stop” on a major domestic sex trafficking network (referred to then as a “pimp circuit”) linking central cities in Pennsylvania and upstate New York. Prostitution rings were known to still exist in the city through 2013. In February, 2023, local experts expressed concerns about a rising trend for sex trafficking in the Capital Region of New York. Among the associated problems have been cases of child endangerment, including a 2007 case in which a prostituted woman was arrested for child endangerment for snorting cocaine from her infant’s stomach between “dates” with sex buyers.

To combat these issues, the Schenectady Police Department conducted its first street-level reverse sting on October 19, 1978. The operation utilized two undercover female officers, who posed as decoys. Nineteen male sex buyers were arrested as a result; all were forced to spend a weekend in jail. Through the 1980s and early 1990s, SPD officers furthered efforts by conducting frequent, large-scale reverse stings. Operations are still conducted periodically, and have at times employed the use of surveillance cameras. Since 1980, the Schenectady Daily Gazette has publicized the names of all arrestees. In 1998, local news named a city councilman who was arrested and then censured by the Council for buying sex. More recently, multiple online news sources have included the sex buyer identities in their coverage. For example, in July 2019, Schenectady police arrested three sex buyers in a combined sting/reverse sting, and posted photos and other identifiers in news releases.

In February, 2023, nine sex buyers were arrested during a Schenectady Police Special Investigations Unit prostitution detail in the area of State Street and Swan Street. One of the arrested men was the former longtime head of the Schenectady Office of General Services, who served in the city from 1991 until leaving in 2014 for a post as director of operations at Empire State Plaza. All nine suspects arrested in the sting were each charged with Class A misdemeanor counts of Patronizing a Prostitute in the third degree, and their identities included in news reports.

Police have collaborated with neighborhood associations and encourage residents to report suspected prostitution activity. As a result, anti-demand initiatives have been largely well-received, and at times spurred by residents’ requests to hold sex buyers accountable for their actions. As early as September 1978, a Gazette reporter, unaware of the SPD’s plans to conduct its first reverse sting, spoke to several community members who urged police to “arrest prostitutes’ customers” in addition to prostituted women. In October 1993, mothers in the city’s Vale area took things a step further and offered to personally distribute warning pamphlets on behalf of police to sex buyers seen loitering in their neighborhood.

Schenectady residents and law enforcement have also deliberated about using “Dear John” letters, auto seizure, and mandatory community service requirements for convicted sex buyers, but none of these tactics have been formally adopted, to our knowledge.