Fremont County is a largely rural area in south-central Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains, situated near Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Its largest city and county seat is Canon City, CO. Prostitution and sex trafficking are known to occur in the area. Reports of robbery and violence against individuals engaging in commercial sex have been documented. Among the more serious crimes associated with the local commercial sex market is child sex trafficking.

According to interviews with police from other Colorado communities during the National Assessment Survey in 2012, in effort to combat consumer-level demand, at least one street-level reverse sting and a few web-based reverse sting operations have been conducted in the county. For example, in 2007, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office in coordination with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Canon City Police Department conducted a web-based reverse sting operation targeting individuals seeking to sexually exploit minors in exchange for money. The investigation resulted in the arrest of four men for Internet luring of a child, Internet sexual exploitation of a child, and promotion of obscenity to a minor. As a result of the arrest, one of the arrested sex buyers, was fired from his position as the Colorado Department of Corrections law librarian. While the offender was initially prohibited from having contact with minors, including his 9-year-old son, due to the nature of his crimes, the court allowed the offender to see his son under line-of-sight supervision by his ex-wife. According to the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, while awaiting trial, the offender was freed from the Fremont County Detention Center on a $25,000 bond.

A similar operation conducted in Canon City in August 2004, resulted in the arrest of a 40-year-old 1st Class Sergeant who died by suicide as a result of his arrest in September 2004. The man had allegedly communicated with an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl online. Upon the sex buyer’s arrival to the predetermined location, he was arrested by undercover officers.

In May 2008, an associate professor of military science who worked at Seattle University’s Reserve Officer Training Corps was arrested in Canon City and charged with several crimes related to commercial sexual exploitation of children. The man had flown to Colorado to meet who he thought was an underage girl that he had been corresponding with online. However, the offender had actually been corresponding with a Colorado law enforcement team focused on internet crimes against children. According to police, the man was held in the Fremont County Detention Center while police investigate eight offenses, including soliciting for child prostitution, police said.