Alliance is a city of about 22,000 residents, located near Akron in northeastern Ohio, in eastern Stark County. Prostitution activity has been well-documented within the city, and throughout the county. This activity and the problems and ancillary crimes it generates results in complaints to law enforcement agencies from residents and businesses. Among the more serious crimes associated with the local commercial sex market is sex trafficking.

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. For example, in February 2012, the Alliance Police Department conducted its first web sting to identify and apprehend sex buyers attempting to buy sex online. Officers posted a decoy advertisement to Backpage.com. When men responded to the listing, an undercover female officer arranged to meet them at a local hotel. As the sex buyers arrived and offered money in exchange for sexual services, they were apprehended by police. All arrestees’ names were released to the media.

In January 2014, a man was arrested during a reverse sting in Alliance and charged with possessing criminal tools and soliciting for prostitution. According to police, the suspect had placed an online ad soliciting sexual activity to which an undercover officer agreed to meet him at his residence. The suspect was taken into custody and arraigned in Alliance Municipal Court. After his arrest in August 2013 on identical charges, he was sentenced to a $500 fine plus costs and 30 days in jail, with all days but five suspended on condition of his good behavior for one year. The second charges could yield sentences of up to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine, plus imposition of any suspended jail term.