Beaver Falls, PA

Categories:

Tactics Used
Auto Seizure ✓
Buyer Arrests ✓
Cameras ✓
Community Service ✓
Employment Loss ✓
Identity Disclosure ✓
IT Based Tactics ✓
John School ✓
Letters ✓
License Suspension ✓
Neighborhood Action ✓
Public Education ✓
Reverse Stings ✓
SOAP Orders ✓
Web Stings ✓

Beaver Falls is a town of less than 10,000 residents in Western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh and Aliquippa, located in Beaver County, PA. Prostitution has been recognized as a local problem for decades, and community complaints have played a role in police deciding to allocate resources and conduct investigations and enforcement operations. To combat the consumer-level demand that drives all prostitution and sex trafficking, reverse stings have occurred periodically in the town since the 1990s, according to police interviewed for the 2012 National Assessment. Police have conducted an average of about one to two operations per year. For most of the past 15 years, the Beaver Falls Police Department has not had any 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.

Sex buyers have also been arrested as a result of alternative investigations and residential complaints to local law enforcement. For example, in April, 1986, the Beaver Falls Police Department conducted an investigation into what officers believed was a “sex club,” operating above a local Italian restaurant. According to reports, police initiated the investigation after an increase in residential reports to the station regarding suspected prostitution activity occurring at the club. Beaver Falls Police officers conducted a raid at the establishment that resulted in the arrest of 25 male sex buyers charged with patronizing prostitution. Police reported that the club specialized in “sadomasochism and bondage/discipline.” Police photographed the male sex buyers and the devices they were using during the raid as evidence. The then-Beaver Falls Mayor commended the BPD and the officers assisting in the raid for doing, “a fine job in getting rid of what was a real cancer in our city.” The identities of arrested sex buyers were not publicly disclosed.

Key Sources

National Assessment Interview (2012)

Reverse Stings, Identity Disclosure:

Sex Buyer Arrests:

Sex Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation in the Area:

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.

Documented Violence Against Individuals Engaged in Prostitution in the Area:

State Pennsylvania
Type City
Population 9108
Location
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