Beaverton, located Washington County and part of the Portland metropolitan area, is a city in Oregon of approximately 99,000 residents. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been known to occur in the area. Among the more serious crimes associated with prostitution are child sex trafficking and the related production and dissemination of child sexual abuse materials. In 2017, the Beaverton Police Department (BPD) assisted the Portland Police Bureau’s Sex Trafficking Unit in arresting a woman accused of trafficking a 17-year-old girl for sex. In 2020, a man was arrested on prostitution, child sexual abuse material (aka, child pornography), and other child sexual abuse-related charges. The BPD and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children have also held trainings on how to prevent child sex trafficking for local detectives.

Also well documented  have been violent assaults against prostituted persons, sex buyers, and law enforcement personnel conducting investigations. For example, in 2016, a man crashed his vehicle into two police cars after he was found to be trafficking a 17-year-old girl. In 2019 a man who aimed his car at police was arrested on multiple charges including attempted aggravated murder and promoting prostitution. In February, 2023, a man took a 15-year-old girl to a home in Beaverton and gave her a loaded gun to rob the man who had arranged to pay to sexually abuse her, according to prosecutors. The girl stole the money, shot the 56-year-old male sex buyer, and then fled with the pimp and others to Washington state.

To address such problems, the BPD, often in collaboration with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO), has employed tactics focusing on the consumer-level demand that provides the revenue for prostitution and sex trafficking markets. For example, in June 2018, the WCSO led a team in a reverse sting operation that resulted in the arrest or citation of 37 people during an anti-sex trafficking effort. Investigators communicated with people seeking to purchase commercial sex online. Everyone arrested or cited faced charges of prostitution-related crimes, including commercial sexual solicitation.

The BPD has also participated in the FBI’s annual child sex trafficking operation, Operation Cross Country, since 2009. This nationwide operation apprehends individuals seeking to sexually exploit minors in exchange for money and identifies victims of child sex trafficking across the United States. Operations consist of both street-level and web-based reverse stings, conducted by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force and other local agencies.

The BPD has also conducted web-based reverse stings outside of the Operation Cross Country initiatives. For example, in January 2018, four men were arrested and charged with online sexual corruption and luring a minor during a web-based reverse sting operation. Beaverton police detectives and FBI agents communicated with the men online and arranged to meet under the pretense that the suspects would be sexually exploiting minors in exchange for money. Their names and identities were released by local media outlets.

Sex buyers and traffickers have also been apprehended through alternative investigations and residential reports to local law enforcement. For example, in 2019, the FBI and BPD were alerted about an ad on social media regarding two underage girls advertising sex. Police interviewed the girls, ages 15 and 13, who reportedly spoke with a man who had solicited them for sex acts in exchange for $230. Undercover detectives communicated with the man online, posing as a 15-year-old, and arranged a time and place to meet. Upon arriving at the predetermined location, the man was arrested. In June 2019, the offender was found guilty of two counts of second-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, two counts of online sexual corruption of a child, and three counts of luring a minor. He was also fired from his job at the Salem-Keizer Education Foundation.