Amarillo is a city of approximately 200,000 residents, located two hours north of Lubbock, and lies within both Potter County and Randall County Texas. Residents and local law enforcement have reported problems with prostitution in the city for decades, specifically along Amarillo Boulevard. Cases of sex trafficking of children and the murder of prostituted women have also been documented in the city.

In their efforts to reduce demand for commercial sex in the city and surrounding areas, the Amarillo Police Department has adopted several demand-reduction tactics to identify and apprehend local sex buyers. Police conduct periodic street-level reverse stings, using undercover female officers as decoys. When sex buyers attempt to solicit sex from the women, they are arrested. These operations have at times resulted in the arrest of about 10 sex buyers in a single evening. Arrested men may have their names publicized in local media outlets. For example, a street-level reverse sting occurred in December 2013, in which six men were arrested on Amarillo Boulevard. Undercover female officers posing as prostituted women approached suspected male sex buyers who were interested in engaging in sexual activities in exchange for money. All six of the arrested sex buyers were booked into the Potter County Corrections Center on prostitution and related charges.

Web-based reverse stings have also been conducted in Amarillo. For example, in September, 2017, seven men were arrested during a joint online operation targeting child predators. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), the online operation and was assisted by Homeland Security and the West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) Police Department. DPS said seven suspects were arrested and booked into the Randall County Jail on a variety of charges, including Compelling Prostitution Child Younger than 18 years of age, and Online Solicitation of a Minor. In September 2018, a similar operation occurred, resulting in the arrest of six men for online solicitation of a minor in Amarillo. The Amarillo Police Department had received information over the prior year and half that several local teenage girls were involved in sex trafficking. The APD Special Victims Unit and ProActive Criminal Enforcement unit (PACE) conducted an undercover operation with Special Victims Unit Detectives posing as 15 and 16 year old girls. The suspects initiated contact with the undercover officer by text messages, arranging to engage in commercial sex with the decoy officers, who suspects believed to be teenage girls. When the suspects arrived at the agreed upon location they were arrested, interviewed and booked into the Randall County Jail for online solicitation of a minor, a felony offense. In March 2021, another large scale sex trafficking/prostitution operation resulted in 37 arrests, mostly of males on prostitution charges. The Amarillo Police Department has publicly disclosed identities of arrested sex buyers by posting the names and pictures of those arrested on social media. In August, 2021, another operation produced the arrest of 27 individuals, mostly male sex buyers. In September, 2021, the state of Texas elevated paying for prostitution from a Class B misdemeanor to a state jail felony. In November, 2022, the Amarillo Police Department announced that five men were arrested during a two-day operation on felony charges of soliciting prostitution. The five men’s identities were included in news reports.

In 2016, the organization No Boundaries International opened a chapter in Amarillo, specifically focusing on prostitution and sex trafficking. In addition to prevention and victim services, the group launched a “john school” course for those who pay for sex. In response to a survey conducted in 2022 by the NCOSE team for a National Institute of Justice grant to update and expand Demand Forum (Grant #2020-75-CX-0011), representatives from No Boundaries International – Amarillo reported that a john school does exist in the city however, only one class has been held. The class was held online due to COVID-19 restrictions. The organization intends to officially launch the program once sufficient and sustainable funding is available.

Loss of employment is another consequence of buying sex that has occurred within the county. For example, in October, 2014, a pastor at an Amarillo church resigned from his post after being arrested Texas Department of Public Safety officers while with a prostituted woman at a local motel. The pastor had served at the Hillside Christian Church’s Hillside Canyon campus since 2009. The pastor penned a letter to be read to the church’s congregation, admitting to knowingly booking an appointment for an “inappropriate sexual encounter.”