Albany is a city of approximately 54,000 residents in Northwestern Oregon, situated south of Salem along the Interstate 5 corridor. It’s the county seat of Linn County, with some parts of the city being located in Benton County. Prostitution and sex trafficking appear to be substantial issues in the city, including through illicit massage businesses. Among the more serious issues associated with the city’s commercial sex market is child sexual exploitation.

To combat these problems, local law enforcement agencies have targeted consumer-level demand for commercial sex, which provides the revenue stream driving prostitution and sex trafficking. For example, in May 2012, the Albany Police Department (APD) conducted its first web-based reverse sting. Officers made contact with men attempting to solicit sex on Backpage.com and arranged to meet them at a local hotel. When they arrived and attempted to enter the designated hotel room, they were apprehended by police. A total of 10 male sex buyers were arrested; their names were publicized by local media outlets. Each arrested sex buyer was also fined $1,000 and forced to forfeit any money in his possession at the time of the arrest.

In June 2013, the APD assisted the Benton County Sheriff’s Office and the Corvallis Police Department in a web-based reverse sting operation that resulted in the arrest of eight male sex buyers between the ages of 21 and 51. Undercover investigators posted a decoy advertisement to a website offering commercial sex, and over the course of the 10-hour operation, received “numerous phone calls from men trying to arrange to meet with [a] female prostitute.” As the men arrived and made an explicit offer of money for sexual services, they were arrested. The identities, images, ages, and hometowns of arrested sex buyers were released to media outlets. All eight suspects were either booked and released from the Benton County Jail or cited and released at the scene.