Beachwood is a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, near Shaker Heights, and has about 12,000 residents. Cases of prostitution and the attempted procurement of minors for commercial sex have been reported in the city.

The Beachwood Police Department has conducted reverse stings to combat consumer-level demand for prostitution.  In one operation, conducted in January 2013, thirteen men were arrested for attempting to buy sex at a local hotel. Although the details of the operation (including the identities of those arrested) were not disclosed to the public, media outlets reported that the sting spanned a single evening and employed the assistance of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office.

In April 2013, BPD, CCSO and Orange Village Police Department officers conducted a second operation, this time netting 15 johns. The three-day sting involved a “female officer posing as a ‘escort’ [and] receiving numerous calls from men seeking sex for hire.” The undercover officer then arranged to meet the men at a nearby hotel. The men were arrested as they arrived to meet the decoy. Although the arrestees’ names were not released to the public, one of the johns’ identities was publicized in the press when it was discovered that he was a player for the Cleveland Browns.