Brazos County is a Texas county located between the metropolitan areas of Austin, TX and Houston, TX. The county has a population of approximately 237,000 residents and its county seat is Bryan, TX. Brazos County is also home to Texas’ largest university, Texas A&M University. Due to the county’s location, prostitution and sex trafficking have been pervasive issues within Brazos County. Brazos County is located in the center of what is known as the Texas Triangle. The Texas Triangle is located in the heart of Texas, with the metro areas of Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio acting as the Triangle’s vertices. The three destination cities are connected through Interstate 35, Interstate 45, and Interstate 10. These highways are popular routes for travel as individuals can easily move between the highly populated cities for either business or leisure. Brazos County’s close proximity to Houston and its position along Interstate 45, which runs from Houston to Dallas, contributes to the significant amount of prostitution and sex trafficking activity within the county. For example, in the fall of 2016, local and state law enforcement rescued a victim of sex trafficking at a local College Station hotel. The survivor reportedly told officials that she had run away from her husband and met a sex trafficker who threatened to hurt her family if she ran away. The sex trafficker posted ads of the woman on backpage.com. Over the course of 54 days the survivor was transported from Louisiana to Texas, to Colorado, and back to Texas, where officers were able to rescue her outside of a local College Station hotel. Since then, she become a Human Trafficking specialist for Mercy Gate Ministries and a survivor leader for A21 Freedom Chasers and Roy Maas Youth Alternatives. In addition, two years after her rescue, Unbound Bryan College Station was founded where she has the opportunity to share her story and help others in need.

In an effort to deter local sex buyers and sex traffickers, several demand reduction tactics have been incorporated by officials in the county. For example, the Bryan Police Department has conducted periodic street-level reverse stings since at least 2003, and web-based stings since at least 2005. Those arrested have at times also been charged with drug possession. The names, ages, and other details about the sex buyers arrested are reported to the media. Complaints about prostitution in the area contribute to police conducting undercover operations. In April of 2018, six male sex buyers were arrested during a web-based prostitution sting. Officers used decoy ads on Backpage.com and arranged meetings with sex buyers at a local hotel. The decoy ads were posted on a website called Backpage.com that’s commonly used by people seeking to engage in sexual acts in exchange for money. The men were taken into custody after agreeing on a price and showing up at the hotel. A sergeant with the operation told reporters that undercover investigators were communicating with 25 to 30 men, and that the majority of those men had been identified. Backpage was shut down by the federal government during the operation. Bryan Police representatives said they thought they could have made about 20 arrests if the site was still live. All of the six men arrested were soon released from jail on bond. The sting was a collaborative effort on behalf of the Bryan Police Department’s Directed Deployment Team in coordination with the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office and Bell County Sheriff’s Office.

Sex Buyer Arrests:

In April of 2019, a College Station man was arrested for attempting to solicit sex from a minor through Snapchat. According to reports, the victim and the sex buyer had met at College Station Middle school when Lane was visiting one of his relatives who attended the middle school. The investigation began after the victim reported the incident to College Station police. According to reports, the offender had since been sexually harassing the middle school student and asking them to engage in sexual activity through Snapchat. The offender was arrested and booked at the Brazos County Jail, on a $10,000 bond. The offender’s identity, image, age, location, and charges were included in reports from local news sources. In May of 2020, College Station police arrested a man for allegedly offering a woman food and “leather gifts” in exchange for sex. According to reports, the sex buyer was driving his vehicle when he approached a woman who was walking back to their apartment complex and offered to give them leather gifts and food in exchange for sex. The woman called police upon arriving to their apartment complex. The offender happened to live at the same complex at the woman he approached. The sex buyer was arrested and booked in Brazos County Jail. The offender’s identity, image, age, location, and charges were included in reports from local news sources.

Neighborhood Action, Public Education:

Unbound Global is a network of anti-human trafficking agencies working in communities in the United States and around the world. Although the work of each Unbound location is unique, depending on the needs of its community, all Unbound agencies firmly believe that combating the demand for commercial sex is a crucial,

“Trafficking is a supply and demand business. Because there is a demand for cheap labor and a demand for commercial sex, human trafficking continues to exist. With sex trafficking, engagement in the commercial sex industry, whether in viewing pornography or purchasing sex, is creating profit for traffickers that drives demand. As we work to prevent trafficking and strengthen the protective factors of our communities, we also have to educate and fight the demand.” —Unbound Global

There are four Unbound agencies in Texas. Unbound Bryan College Station was launched in 2018, as part of Antioch Community Church College Station and has three main lines of effort: Prevention & Awareness, Professional Training, and Survivor Advocacy. In 2020, Unbound Bryan College Station reached 18 survivors, trained over 2,200 community members, youth, and professionals, including over 700 Texas A&M University students & faculty members on how pornography impacts human trafficking, conducted 53 trainings, completed over 40 hours of direct service hours, and equipped 23 businesses with resources. To read the full Unbound BCS 2020 Impact Report, click HERE.

In response to a survey conducted in 2022 by the NCOSE team for a National Institute of Justice grant to update and expand Demand Forum (Grant #2020-75-CX-0011), representatives from the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office reported that web-based reverse sting operations are frequently conducted in partnership with the Texas Attorney General’s Office – Human Trafficking Unit. During these investigations, all interactions are recorded through the use of audio and video surveillance.