Mount Laurel, NJ

Categories:

Tactics Used
Auto Seizure ✓
Buyer Arrests ✓
Cameras ✓
Community Service ✓
Employment Loss ✓
Identity Disclosure ✓
IT Based Tactics ✓
John School ✓
Letters ✓
License Suspension ✓
Neighborhood Action ✓
Public Education ✓
Reverse Stings ✓
SOAP Orders ✓
Web Stings ✓

Mount Laurel is a township of approximately 41,000 residents, situated in northeastern New Jersey east of Cherry Hill and Camden in Burlington County. Chronic prostitution activity, including the sexual exploitation of minors for commercial gain, has been reported in the community for decades. Men have also been robbed while buying sex in Mount Laurel.

Past efforts to reduce prostitution and sex trafficking in the township have targeted sex buyers, with the Mount Laurel Police Department having conducted reverse stings. For example, in July 2012, MLPD officers, with the support of MAGLOCLEN (the Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network), conducted a web-based reverse sting in which they posted an online ad suggesting prostitution with a phone number to call. Calls were answered by a police officer posing as a prostituted woman. Appointments were then arranged at a hotel. Following the sting, a MLPD representative reported that “the phone started ringing about 10 minutes after the ad went up.” Within six hours, they arrested 11 men from South Jersey and one from Pennsylvania; there were multiple other interested parties that police did not have the resources to apprehend. The 11 men were all charged with engaging in prostitution and two were also charged with loitering. The identities of the men arrested were released to the media. Some news outlets posted the names and ages of the sex buyers, but others did not.

In August 2016, the Mount Laurel Police Department conducted a prostitution sting in the hotel/motel district of Mt. Laurel Township, resulting in the arrest of five individuals, including two male sex buyers. Police said the ancillary crimes associated with prostitution ranged from petty theft and narcotics offenses to robbery, sexual assault, and human trafficking. The Mt. Laurel Police Department partnered with area businesses to address the crimes that affect the quality of life for all of those who reside in, do business in, and visit Mt. Laurel. Police also said that similar operations would continue until criminal prostitution organizations were eradicated from the township. The identities of the arrested persons were included in the police department’s press release. The two men arrested had responded to an online ad posted by Mount Laurel police in August 2016, which offered a “$50 short stay special” and included a phone number for a policewoman posing as a prostituted woman. The undercover officer recorded the conversations with the policewoman at the Township motel room. The men were arrested when they appeared at the hotel and produced the agreed-upon amount of money in exchange for sex.

Key Partners

  • Mount Laurel Police Department
  • MAGLOCLEN (Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network)
  • Area businesses collaborating on hotel district stings

Key Sources

Reverse Stings, Identity Disclosure:

Background on Sex Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation in the Area:

Background on Prostitution in the Area:

  • “Man Facing Charge in Prostitution Probe,” Burlington County Times, November 2 2004.
  • “Ohio Woman Faces Prostitution Charge,” Burlington County Times, April 1 2008.
  • “Phila. Woman Charged with Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, July 2 2008.
  • “2 Women Charged with Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, August 8 2008.
  • “Police Charge Two with Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, October 10 2008.
  • “Man, Woman Picked up for Prostitution,” Medford Central Record, October 30 2008.
  • “Phila. Man Arrested on Prostitution Charges,” Burlington County Times, November 25 2008.
  • “Three Arrested at Mount Laurel Hotel,” Burlington County Times, January 11 2009.
  • “Prostitution Bust; 3 Women Charged with Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, February 3 2010.
  • “2 Women Charged with Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, March 31 2010.
  • “Woman Charged with Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, August 10 2010.
  • “Woman Charged with Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, August 17 2010.
  • “Two Arrested on Prostitution Charges,” Burlington County Times, October 1 2010.
  • “Woman Faces 2nd Prostitution Charge,” Burlington County Times, October 7 2010.
  • “Prostitution Bust Nets Five in Mount Laurel,” Burlington County Times, February 11 2011.
  • “Woman Charged with Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, February 16 2011.
  • “Atlantic City Man Charged with Prostitution in Mount Laurel,” Burlington County Times, March 16 2011.
  • “2 Women Accused in Prostitution Bust,” Burlington County Times, March 29 2011.
  • “More Prostitution Arrests Made,” Burlington County Times, March 30 2011.
  • “2 Women Accused of Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, April 27 2011.
  • “2 Women Charged in Prostitution Bust,” Burlington County Times, May 11 2011.
  • “Woman Charged with Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, May 17 2011.
  • “Man Charged with Promoting Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, June 30 2011.
  • “Woman Charged with Promoting Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, July 6 2011.
  • “Woman Charged with Prostitution for Second Time,” Burlington County Times, July 12 2011.
  • “Two Charged in Mount Laurel Prostitution Bust,” Burlington County Times, November 4 2011.
  • “Pa. Woman Charged with Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, December 13 2011.
  • “Woman Charged with Prostitution in Mount Laurel,” Burlington County Times, January 26 2012.
  • “Woman Charged with Prostitution in Mount Laurel,” Burlington County Times, February 12 2012.
  • “2 Arrested during Prostitution Bust at Mount Laurel Hotel,” Burlington County Times, April 29 2012.
  • “2 Men Charged with Prostitution in Mount Laurel,” Burlington County Times, June 17 2012.
  • “Woman Charged with Prostitution in Mount Laurel,” Burlington County Times, August 12 2012.
  • “Three People Charged after Prostitution Bust at Mount Laurel Hotel,” Burlington County Times, August 12 2012.
  • “Woman Charged with Engaging in Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, October 16 2012.
  • “Woman Accused of Prostitution in Mount Laurel,” Burlington County Times, October 26 2012.
  • “Police: Florida Woman Charged with Prostitution after Soliciting Undercover Officer,” Burlington County Times, November 13 2012.
  • “California Woman Charged with Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, December 18 2012.
  • “Mount Laurel Police Arrest 3 Women during Prostitution Busts,” Burlington County Times, December 23 2012.
  • “Mount Laurel Police Arrest Four Suspects on Prostitution Charges,” Burlington County Times, January 3 2013.
  • “Two Charged with Promoting Prostitution at Mount Laurel Hotel,” Burlington County Times, January 8 2013.
  • “Two Charged with Prostitution in Mount Laurel,” Burlington County Times, January 13 2013.
  • “Woman Charged with Engaging in Prostitution,” Burlington County Times, February 8 2013.
  • “New York Woman Charged with Engaging in Prostitution at Mount Laurel Spa,” Burlington County Times, May 9 2013.
  • “Two Charged in Prostitution Bust at Mount Laurel Hotel,” Burlington County Times, July 10 2013.
  • “Georgia Woman Accused of Engaging in Prostitution at Mount Laurel Hotel,” Burlington County Times, July 21 2013.
  • “Clementon Man Charged with Soliciting Prostitution in Mount Laurel,” Burlington County Times, October 4 2013.
  • “2 Charged with Prostitution at Mt. Laurel Hotels,” Burlington County Times, February 4 2014.
  • “Cops: Pennsylvania Man Arrested in Mt. Laurel Hotel on Prostitution Charges,” Bucks County Courier Times, October 9 2014.
  • “Woman Charged with Prostitution at Mount Laurel Hotel,” Burlington County Times, January 7 2015.
  • “Woman Charged with Engaging in Prostitution at Mount Laurel Hotel,” Burlington County Times, February 3 2015.
  • https://www.trentonian.com/central-record-police-briefs-for-the-week-of-december-22 (2016)

Documented Violence Against Individuals Engaged in Prostitution in the Area:

State New Jersey
Type City
Population 41196
Location
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