Lee’s Summit is a city located within both Jackson and Cass Counties. It is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, and has a population or approximately was 100,000. Sex Trafficking and prostitution are prevalent and well-documented problems throughout the region, including in Lee’s Summit. For example, in May, 2014, a Kansas City, MO man and a Lee’s Summit, MO woman were indicted by a federal grand jury for transporting a minor across state lines to engage in prostitution in Kansas in December, 2013. According to court documents, one defendant advertised the child victim for prostitution on Backpage.com and paid for an area hotel room. The victim was transported from a Missouri residence to several locations in Kansas where the child victim was sexually abused for money. The defendants were also charged with being an unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of several firearms. They later pleaded guilty to the charges for transporting an individual across states lines for prostitution.

Consumer level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking, and has therefore been targeted by local law enforcement agencies as a strategy for prevention and response.  A law enforcement respondent to the 2021 National Assessment Survey reported that demand reduction tactics have been implemented in Lee’s Summit, with street-level and web-based reverse stings since 2020, about 1-2 times per year.