Beaver County, PA
Categories:
Tactics Used |
|
---|---|
Reverse stings | ✓ |
Shaming | ✓ |
Auto seizure | ✓ |
Community service | ✓ |
Public education | ✓ |
Neighborhood action | ✓ |
SOAP orders | ✓ |
John school | ✓ |
Letters | ✓ |
Cameras | ✓ |
Web stings | ✓ |
License suspension | ✓ |
Beaver County is located in the northwest suburbs of Pittsburgh in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Its population is roughly 170,000, and the county seat is the city of Beaver. Other substantial citites and towns within the Western Pennsylvania county are Beaver Falls, Aliquippa, Center Township, Ambridge, and Monaca. Prostitution has been recognized as a local problem for decades throughout Beaver County, and community complaints have played a role in police operations responding to commercial sex in the cities, towns, and boroughs. Among the problems associated with prostitution in the county are sex trafficking of adults and children, as well as the murder of a prostituted woman in 1994, and the murder of a john in 1995.
While most the effort to address prostitution in the town is directed at investigating “supply side” tactics, on at least one occasion law enforcement has targeted sex buyers for arrest. The Beaver County Sheriff’s Office frequently partners with local police departments and state agencies to conduct reverse stings. For example, to curtail prostitution activity along one city street, the Aliquippa Police Department conducted a series of street-level reverse stings between 2001 and 2003. The operations, which employed undercover female officers as decoys, were facilitated by officers from the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office and Pennsylvania’s State Weed and Seed Initiative. One sting, conducted in June 2002, resulted in the arrest of 11 johns in 48 hours. As a warning to other would-be sex buyers, police released the names and identities of all arrestees to the local media. In the summer of 2001, officers from the Ambridge Police Department and Beaver County Sheriff’s Office conducted two street-level reverse stings in response to residents’ complaints of increased prostitution activity in certain neighborhoods. In November 2016, Center Township police reported the interception of a single john in a reverse sting using a female police informant. The arrestee reportedly arranged to meet the woman at a local hotel and pay her for sex acts. For most of the past 15 years, the Beaver Falls Police Department has had no female officers, so they have partnered with the Beaver County Drug Task Force and the Pennsylvania State Police for support. Men arrested in the street-level operations have their identities released to the media, and are disseminated by local news outlets.
In July, 2019 the fourth annual report was released by the Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Pennsylvania at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. The report presented county-level data on arrests for purchasing sex in Pennsylvania (the state has separate statutes for buying versus selling sex) during calendar year 2018. The report’s data comes from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, and during 2018 there were seven arrested sex buyers in Beaver County that were charged under the statute for purchasing sex (18 Pa.C.S. § 5902(e)). It is important to note that there may have been larger numbers of arrested sex buyers, since some cities and counties may choose to handle such cases by issuing civil citations for violating prostitution ordinances in local courts or magistrate’s offices, rather than charging with a state criminal offenses in district courts.
Key Partners
- Beaver County Sheriff’s Office
- Beaver Falls Police Department
- Beaver County Drug Task Force
- Aliquippa Police Department
- Ambridge Police Department
- Pennsylvania’s State Weed and Seed Initiative
Key Sources
John Arrests:
- “Police Impound Sex Equipment”, Pittsburgh Press, April 7 1986.
- “Beaver Falls Raid Nets 26 Arrests, Sexual Devices”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 8 1986.
- “Beaver Falls Commends Police”, Beaver County Times, April 9 1986.
- “Sex Club Charges Dropped”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 7 1987.
- https://cseinstitute.org/Report on Commercial Sexual Exploitation In PA Spring-2019-Villanova (2019)
Reverse Stings, Shaming:
- “Prostitutes’ Clients Targeted”, Beaver County Times, December 8 1994.
- “Seven Arrested in Sting Operation”, Beaver County Times, May 21 1999.
- “Police Make Prostitution Arrests”, Beaver County Times, June 6 1999.
- “Aliquippa Police Charge Three Men in Prostitution Sting”, Beaver County Times, November 11 2001.
- “Five Charged in Prostitution Sting”, Allegheny Times, July 8 2001.
- “Six Charged in Prostitution Case”, Allegheny Times, August 2 2001.
- “Longtime Area Pastor Caught in Police Sting, Accused of Solicitation”, Beaver County Times, June 23 2002.
- “Minister Arrested in Prostitution Sweep Says He Was ‘Sort of Set Up’”, New Castle News, June 24 2002.
- “Preacher Arraigned on Solicitation Charges”, Beaver County Times, July 17 2002.
- “Pastor Faces Trial on Solicitation Charge”, Beaver County Times, August 11 2002.
- “Seven Charged in Crime Patrol”, Beaver County Times, November 4 2002.
- “Aliquippa Police Charge 11 Men in Prostitution Sting”, Beaver County Times, June 9 2002.
- “Aliquippa: Soliciting Alleged”, Beaver County Times, June 10 2003.
- “Minister Found Innocent of Prostitution Charge”, New Castle News, March 7 2003.
- “Four Arrested in Beaver Falls Prostitution Sting”, Beaver County Times, May 16 2011.
Web-Based Reverse Sting, Shaming:
- https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/11/22/school-board-member-arrested-prostitution-sting/ (2016)
- https://www.wpxi.com/news/beaver-county-school-board-member-youth-football-coach-arrested-in-prostitution-sting (2016)
- https://cseinstitute.org/Report on Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Pennsylvania (2018)
Background on Local Prostitution:
- “Woman Is Arrested at Beaver Falls”, Beaver County Times, June 22 1965.
- “Women Accused of Prostitution”, Allegheny Times, September 13 1993.
- “Woman Charged with Prostitution”, Beaver County Times, November 20 1995.
- “Stop Crime, Beaver Falls Citizens Say”, Beaver County Times, February 10 1999.
- “Woman Charged with Prostitution”, Beaver County Times, March 2 1999.
- “Prostitution Sting Nets Arrest of 5 Suspects”, Beaver County Times, October 30 2002.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Charged”, Beaver County Times, August 6 2003.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Charge”, Beaver County Times, August 21 2003.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Alleged”, Beaver County Times, September 25 2003.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Charged”, Beaver County Times, October 13 2003.
- “Beaver Falls – Woman Charged”, Beaver County Times, April 27 2004.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Charged”, Beaver County Times, June 24 2004.
- “In Brief; Police & Fire; Prostitution Charge”, Beaver County Times, August 5 2004.
- “Beaver Falls – Woman Charged”, Beaver County Times, September 29 2004.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Alleged”, Beaver County Times, October 3 2004.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Alleged”, Beaver County Times, November 2 2004.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Charged”, Beaver County Times, December 19 2004.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Charges”, Beaver County Times, May 11 2005.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Alleged”, Beaver County Times, September 29 2005.
- “Beaver Falls – Solicitation Charged”, Beaver County Times, October 1 2005.
- “Letters to the Editor; Clean Up the Prostitutes”, Beaver County Times, October 2 2005.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Charges”, Beaver County Times, October 5 2005.
- “Police Fight Prostitution in Beaver County”, Beaver County Times, October 16 2005.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Alleged”, Beaver County Times, October 18 2005.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Alleged”, Beaver County Times, November 17 2005.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Charge”, Beaver County Times, November 29 2005.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Charged”, Beaver County Times, April 28 2006.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Alleged”, Beaver County Times, June 2 2006.
- “Beaver Falls’ New Loitering Plan Might Be Illegal”, Allegheny Times, June 6 2006.
- “Loitering Ordinance Faces Legal Questions”, Allegheny Times, June 22 2006.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Charge”, Beaver County Times, July 26 2006.
- “Police Pose as Johns in Sting”, Beaver County Times, August 29 2007.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Charge”, Beaver County Times, November 1 2007.
- “Beaver Falls – Prostitution Alleged”, Beaver County Times, November 15 2007.
- “Prostitution a Problem for Beaver Falls Businesses”, Allegheny Times, January 1 2008.
- “Unwanted Traffic in Beaver Falls; Prostitution a Concern for Business Owners in Borough”, Beaver County Times, January 5 2008.
- “Beaver Falls; Unwanted Entrepreneurs; Hookers a Deterrent to Commerce, Business Owners Say”, Allegheny Times, January 6 2008.
- “Beaver Falls; Prostitution Alleged”, Allegheny Times, January 16 2008.
- “Three Arrested in Beaver Falls Prostitution Sting”, McClatchy-Tribune Regional News, May 20 2008.
- “Beaver Falls”, Beaver County Times, January 2 2009.
- “In Brief; Local Reports”, Beaver County Times, November 12 2012.
- http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2013/06/13/police-pa-prostitution-suspect-sang-rudolph/
Sex Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation in the Area:
- “Man Accused of Trying to Abduct Girl in Beaver Falls to Stand Trial”, Beaver County Times, November 15 2006.
- “Man Accused of Trying to Convince Woman to Be Prostitute”, McClatchy-Tribune Regional News, January 28 2011.
- “Beaver Falls Police: Man Asked Woman to Be His Prostitute”, Beaver County Times, January 30 2011.
- “Brief; Beaver Falls Man Faces Charges on Lewdness, Other Charges”, McClatchy-Tribune Regional News, February 2 2011.
- “Man to Stand Trial on Assault Charges”, Beaver County Times, February 2 2011.
- “Man Charged with Assaulting a Woman”, Ellwood City Ledger, October 4 2012.
Documented Violence against Individuals Engaged in Prostitution in the Area:
- “Unsolved: Robin Miller, 25”, Greensburg Tribune-Review, October 2 2005.
State | Pennsylvania |
Type | County |
Population | 166140 |
Location |
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