Cook County, Illinois is the population center of the state (pop. 5.17 million) and contains the city of Chicago (pop. 2.7 million), as well as numerous smaller – but still substantial – cities and small towns and unincorporated areas. The county has experienced a wide range of problems associated with commercial sex, including child sex trafficking and homicides of both those being sold for sexual exploitation, and those who purchase them. In their efforts to combat prostitution, various agencies and non-profit organizations and neighborhood associations in the county have implemented one of the most comprehensive and aggressive portfolios of initiatives focused on combating demand for commercial sex in the United States. Nearly all of the major types of tactics used to educate, sanction, and deter sex buyers are being applied in the county.  There is also a wide array of collaborators across sectors of the government, as well as private and non-for-profit  organizations and groups.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office, often in collaboration with city police departments, conducts frequent reverse stings and publicizes the identities of the men arrested. They also may seize the vehicles of the men arrested, who are required to pay a $500 fine in order to recover them. Men can also be ordered to perform community service, and to adhere to geographic restraining orders (SOAP Orders). The county also has arguably the most diverse and active collection of non-governmental and community organizations that specifically focus on demand, and push for public education and awareness. Cook County’s focus on combating demand evolved through a collaboration of survivors, advocacy organizations, law enforcement and the leadership of key elected officials. In the spring of 2002, through the Prostitution Alternatives Round Table a group of survivors began confronting the Chicago Police Department (CPD) about their practice of arresting far more women for prostitution than men who buy sex in Chicago Police District 14 (a gentrifying neighborhood in the northwest side of Chicago).

In July and August 2018, arrests of 75 sex buyers in Cook County were made as part of an ongoing crackdown on prostitution across 12 states. Two dozen law enforcement agencies were involved in the 16th National Johns Suppression Initiative. Of the 75 arrests, 10 people faced charges connected with trying to have sex with a minor, and six were charged with counts related to sex trafficking. One man was charged with child endangerment because he had a 5-month-old baby in the backseat of his car while soliciting for sex. Arlington Heights police made two of the Cook County arrests, and police in Matteson, Maywood, and Lansing also helped the sheriff’s office with sting operations.  While most of the arrests were made through street-level reverse stings, authorities also employed online “bots” as a way to deter potential sex buyers.  The Cook County bots made contact with 241 people who were sent warning messages during the joint effort. On average, decoy ads on new, emerging escort sites attracted two potential sex buyer inquiries per ad in the Chicago area. Comparable Backpage.com decoy ads attracted an average of 19 inquiries per ad during a similar prostitution crackdown in January 2018.

In February 2021, another reverse sting in the NW part of the county produced the arrest of sex buyers and seizure of their vehicles. Twenty-two men were issued $1,000 citations for violation of the county’s public morals nuisance ordinance, and 19 vehicles were towed under the ordinance, requiring an additional $500 to reclaim. Another web-based operation on April 2021 in the NW part of the county produced the arrest of an additional 21 sex buyers, cited and fined $1000, and 17 vehicles were seized.  In July 2021, another 25 sex buyers were arrested, each fined $1,000, and 21 had their vehicles seized and must pay $500 to reclaim.

These organizing efforts helped to lay the foundation for survivors and other groups organizing toward the eventual passage of the Predator Accountability Act (the Act was introduced in Illinois’ General Assembly in 2003 and adopted in 2006). The process of studying law enforcement’s response to demand began as a key focus of the Mayor’s Office on Domestic Violence’s report, “The Intersystem Assessment of Prostitution in Chicago” that was released in 2006. The collaborative approach of this study prioritized involving law enforcement officials and greatly contributed to the cultural shifts within the Chicago Police Department. This report resulted in a steady increase in the arrests of johns in Chicago since 2004. This historical progression toward focusing on eliminating demand as a method to combat sex trafficking and prostitution contributed to the creation of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) and served as the foundation that allowed the Justice Project Against Sexual Harm to collaborate in creating the End Demand, Illinois Campaign. These efforts were codified when Cook County Sheriff’s Office worked with Cook County Commissioners to pass significant legislation in 2008 and when he made “demand suppression” a key element of his “Human Trafficking Response Team” in 2009, thereby serving as a “living model” to law enforcement to adopt this strategy. For descriptions and a brief history of anti-demand programs and practices in Cook County, please click here.

IT-Based Tactics

IT-based tactics have been incorporated into the multi-site demand reduction operations coordinated by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. Since 2011, the Cook County (IL) Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) has been coordinating periodic reverse sting operations occurring simultaneously in multiple cities throughout the United States. The collaborative effort was initially called the “National Day of John Arrests,” and then in 2015 was renamed National Johns Suppression Initiative (NJSI). The coalition of agencies that participate in these coordinated enforcement efforts grew from eight to more than 100. The 19 NJSI operations from 2011 through 2021 have involved the collaboration of over 140 law enforcement agencies, and have collectively produced the arrests of more than 10,000 sex buyers. In February 2018 the NJSI partnered with Seattle Against Slavery to roll out its AI bot, Project Intercept, in six municipalities. Since August 2018, some of the NJSI operations have incorporated the use of decoy internet ads that connected to an AI bot, created by Childsafe.ai. The bot interacts with sex buyers to the point where it sends a deterrence message warning of the legal and social dangers of prostitution and sex trafficking.

Initially, the Cook County Sheriff’s Police and eight other agencies utilized the bot, including the principle police departments and sheriff’s offices in Boston, MA; Des Moines, WA; McHenry County, IL; New York, NY; Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Tarrant County, TX; and Upper Merion Township, PA. Across several subsequent NJSI operations, 18 cities and counties used the Childsafe.ai bots to combat demand.

The childsafe bot and other similar products can continuously scrape data or monitor “signal” from open source electronic communications, analyze the raw input, and flag messages as probably depicting a commercial sex offer or transaction. They also engage buyers in some form of interaction designed to deter individuals from attempting to purchase sex, at the present “point of purchase” moment as well as in the future. This approach seeks to disrupt (and ultimately collapse) commercial sex markets by reducing demand.

Public Education and Awareness

There are a number of public education and awareness efforts ongoing in the Chicago/Cook County area. A recently launched effort is “The Ugly Truth” campaign, by the Voices and Faces Project, in collaboration with End Demand Illinois. Available here: http://voicesandfaces.org/new/EDI.html. The Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation has launched a program aimed at high school boys, hoping that education can prevent boys from becoming men who believe it is acceptable to buy sex.

John School DVD

In 2013 the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Department of Women’s Justice Services  produced a video version of a john school program. It is shown to all men arrested for buying sex as they are being processes. It is not intended to be a substitute for a more intensive, interactive, “live” john school. It is meant to be a cost-effective way to efficiently provide some of the content of a traditional john school, and to allow for the material to be delivered to all arrested sex buyers, rather than just those qualifying for a diversion program or ordered to attend john school classes upon conviction. The production of the video was supported in part by the Demand Abolition program (a program of Hunt Alternatives Fund). The topics covered in the 15-minute video are:

Legal Consequences

Focusing on the legal consequences and the graduated penalties related to subsequent offenses and addressing johns’ vulnerability to being robbed or assaulted while involved in prostitution. Features video interviews with investigator, Civil Attorneys, CAASE.

Health Consequences=Physical/Mental(Trauma)

Education, describing the elevated risk of HIV and STD infection associated with prostitution, and stressing that many STDs are asymptomatic and/or difficult to detect and have long-term negative impacts on health. Includes video interviews on substance use, medical consequences, psychological impact

Consequences to Victims

Effect of prostitution on prostituted women and girls, focusing on numerous negative consequences for women serving as prostitutes, such as vulnerability to rape and assault, health problems, drug addiction, and various forms of exploitation. Features video interviews with survivors.

Dynamics of Pimping, Recruiting, and Trafficking

Feature discussions of how pimps and traffickers recruit, control, and exploit women and girls for profit, and the links between local street prostitution and larger systems of human trafficking. Includes a video interview with a former pimp.

Community/Family Effect

Prostitution on the community and domestic situations, describing the drug use, violence, health hazards and other adverse consequences that co-occur with street prostitution. Includes video interviews about consequences for spouses/partners/children, and video footage showing collateral damage to communities from undercover cameras.

Financial and Other Consequences

Features a description of fines, auto seizure, and identity disclosure. Includes video footage of the Leyden Billboards (“Johns Ordinance” narration provided by Sheriff Dart), and video of a vehicle seizure.

 Note: For city-level efforts and reports within the county, see Aurora, Calumet City, Chicago, Chicago Heights, Cicero, Des Plaines, East Hazel Crest, Elgin, Elmhurst, Evanston, Franklin Park, Harvey, Lansing, Leyden Township, Maywood, Schaumburg, Stickney and Stone Park.