Pope County, Minnesota has a population of about 11,000, and its county seat is the city of Glenwood. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity have been well-documented within the county, generating ancillary crimes and complaints to law enforcement agencies from residents and businesses.

Consumer-level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking, and has therefore been targeted by local law enforcement agencies as a strategy for prevention and response. Local law enforcement agencies have conducted operations designed to identify and arrest sex buyers. For example, in August 2015, officers with the Pope County Sheriff’s Office, Glenwood, and Starbuck Police Departments, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s Internet Crimes Against Children and West Central Minnesota Drug and Violent Crime Task Forces conducted a reverse sting using web advertisements. Undercover officers posed as women offering prostitution acts online, and arranged to meet the individuals who responded in Glenwood. Five sex buyers were arrested as a result; their identities were publicized in a PCSO news release. In the statement, the PCSO commented that “this is a statewide issue and local law enforcement is attempting to address it in our local communities.”

In April 2019, nearly five dozen people faced possible felony charges following their arrests for attempting to solicit children or other trafficking victims for sexual abuse, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Investigators with the BCA-led Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force conducted an operation on April 4-8 in several Twin Cities communities. The effort included resources from Task Force affiliate agencies, including the Pope County Sheriff’s Office. During the operation, suspects chatted on several social media platforms with undercover agents and investigators who posed as minors or as sex buyers. Investigators arrested the suspects as they arrived at an arranged meeting place for an encounter. Suspects were booked into the Hennepin, Anoka, or Ramsey county jails and their cases were submitted for charging.