College Park, GA

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
College Park is a city in Fulton County, Georgia, adjacent to the southern boundary of Atlanta. College Park has approximately 14,000 residents. Prostitution and sex trafficking present longstanding problems in College Park and Fulton County. Complaints about street prostitution are prevalent in several areas of the city, such as Virginia Ave. In 2017, a local ordinance was passed in Fulton County that amended prior ordinances for prostitution: in areas that are known to authorities for frequent prostitution arrests, police will be given additional latitude to investigate a loitering suspect who is engaging in such suspicious activities as repeatedly circling the block in a car, stopping their motor vehicle on a Fulton road to beckon to someone on the street or repeatedly stopping, or attempting to stop, drivers by hailing them down. Police will also have additional powers to investigate those who remain in their cars in a parking lot or vacant area for an extended period.
Sex trafficking in the community and throughout Fulton County is well-documented. For example, Fulton County was one of the sites in the  2009 three-day national enforcement action as part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative. This operation, known as Operation Cross Country III, included enforcement operations in 29 cities across the country, including College Park. In 2017, a College Park man was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of sex trafficking and pimping of a 14-year-old girl.  The Fulton County District Attorney announced the sentencing of the 27-year-old offender convicted of multiple crimes, including trafficking for sexual servitude, pimping, pandering, child molestation, statutory rape, simple battery, and the sexual exploitation of a minor. The investigation found that the girl met the offender in December 2015, when she was only 14. The man raped her three different times at area hotels around Old National Highway between December 2015 and January 2016. He also advertised her on Backpage.com and arranged for her to be sexually exploited for cash. He was sentenced to 20 years, to serve 15 in prison by the Fulton County Superior Court. Similar cases resulted in convictions for internet-facilitated child sex trafficking in the city.

Reverse stings have been conducted, including web-based operations. For example, in March 2017, an undercover operation resulted in 16 people being arrested after investigators raided a hotel in College Park. The operation team included two female undercover officers serving as decoys and arrested those attempting to purchase sex. A similar operation was conducted in July 2019.

Key Partners

State Georgia
Type City
Population 13930
Location
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