Boyle County, Kentucky has a population of about 31,000 residents, more than half of whom live in Danville, its largest city and the county seat. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity have been documented in the county. For example, in 2016 two women were arrested during an undercover prostitution sting in Boyle County when detectives contacted a woman who had placed an ad online offering sex in exchange for money. They started the conversation and set up a meeting with an undercover deputy at an apartment in Danville. One woman told the deputies that she usually had three “dates” a day and was offering her services for $150 an hour, and that the apartment’s owner let her use the apartment for sex in exchange for food.

Among local efforts to reduce prostitution and trafficking have been the use of tactics addressing demand. For example, in 2017 Sheriff’s Deputies arrested eight people during an undercover operation. Some parents brought concerns to the Boyle County Sheriff’s Office over dating websites and apps. As part of the investigation, a detective pretended to be a teenager online to see if anyone would offer to buy sex. He created a profile, and almost immediately adults started to make contact with him. The detective made it clear the fictional person was a juvenile; some potential buyers backed off while others did not. Deputies spoke to almost 40 people that engaged in an inappropriate conversation regarding buying access to sexually abuse a minor, and eight followed through and arrived at an arranged meeting place. One man traveled from Mississippi, and another came up from Texas to Boyle County, all thinking they were meeting teenagers for sexual abuse. All eight were arrested and faced multiple charges, and two of the detained individuals were repeat offenders. According to court records, one of the men was a registered sex offender from Indiana. Police would not identify the dating app or website involved in the investigation because they said they would continue using it to catch more sexual predators.

In December 2017, two men men were arrested by Boyle County sheriff’s deputies in an ongoing sex sting operation. In March 2018, they were arraigned in Boyle County Circuit Court. One was arraigned on one count of unlawful use of electronic means to induce a minor to engage in sexual or other prohibited activities, a Class D Felony. He had been arrested in Millennium Park, where he allegedly believed he was meeting a 15-year-old girl for oral sex. The meeting was arranged by the sheriff’s office through a conversation with the suspect using a social media app; a detective posed as a teenage girl offering to have sex for money, according to files in the Boyle County Circuit Clerk’s Office.