Stafford is a city of about 17,000 residents within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area of Texas. The city is mostly in Fort Bend County, with a small portion in Harris County. Prostitution and sex trafficking are well documented problems within the county, including Stafford. Sex trafficking has been such a substantial problem in the county that in 2013, county officials formed a human trafficking task force. Among the more serious crimes associated with the commercial sex market is child sex trafficking. In early 2016, a Fort Bend County jury sentenced a 45-year-old man to 40 years in prison following his conviction for human trafficking (he had coerced a woman into prostitution from which he profited). This was the first case of human trafficking prosecuted in the county. In October 2016, an Operation Cross Country enforcement action occurred in Fort Bend County. Led by the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office, the three-day operation attacked both the supply and demand of juvenile prostitution and child exploitation in the Greater Houston area, including Fort Bend County. In January, 2019, a man was arrested for promotion of prostitution and felony charges of sex trafficking of a minor in connection with a reverse prostitution sting at a Stafford Hotel conducted by undercover detectives with the Houston Police Department. In the days leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, a reverse sting sex trafficking investigation led to the arrest of a man after he allegedly posted online ads for prostitution featuring two undercover detectives, one of which the suspect reportedly believed to be 17 years-old, according to an arrest warrant. The suspect reportedly met with the two undercover detectives at a hotel in Stafford and recruited them to work as prostitutes for him at various clubs near Highway 290 over the Super Bowl weekend.

Consumer-level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking, and has therefore been targeted by local law enforcement agencies in their strategy for prevention and response. To combat the array of problems stemming from commercial sex, local law enforcement agencies have conducted periodic reverse stings and disclosed the identities of arrested sex buyers. For example, in October 2016, an Operation Cross Country enforcement action occurred in Fort Bend County. Led by the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office, the three-day operation attacked both the supply and demand of juvenile prostitution and child exploitation in the Greater Houston area, including Fort Bend County. Fort Bend police rescued four juveniles plus one adult, and nine suspects were arrested locally on charges ranging from prostitution and promotion of prostitution to attempted aggravated sexual assault of a child. One man showed up at a local motel with his one-year-old son after soliciting an undercover officer over the Internet, seeking to have sex with an 8-year-old child. The man also wanted the officer to engage in sexual intercourse with his 1-year-old son. After the suspect was arrested, the one-year old boy and his 6-year-old sibling were rescued from the man’s home. Law enforcement officers from the Meadows Place Police Department, Missouri City Police Department, Stafford Police Department, Sugar Land Police Department, Katy Independent School District Police Department, Houston Police Department, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office and two task forces conducted the Fort Bend County operation. In September 2020, a multi-agency street-level reverse sting called ‘Operation Patriot’ was conducted in Missouri City over a four-day period and in Stafford over a two day period, resulting in the arrest of 46 sex buyers and the recovery of five victims of sex trafficking. Five people were arrested in Missouri City in connection with promotion of prostitution. Stafford authorities reported that 32 people who sought to buy sex were arrested in the span of 48 hours. The identities and photos of arrested offenders were released by police to local media outlets.