Calumet City, IL

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

Calumet City is a suburb south of Chicago with a population of 35,000. The city is in Cook County and is along the state border across from Hammond, Indiana. The Calumet City Police Department has conducted street-level reverse stings using undercover female officers since 1997. The stings occurred about two or three times per year. Since 2006, police have also used surveillance cameras. Neighborhood watch programs that have focused on identifying sex buyers have been in effect since 2000.  Sex buyers arrested may face auto seizures and sometimes have their identities reported in the news.

Calumet City police have partnered with officers from the neighboring Hammond Police Department. Law enforcement and residents have reported problems with chronic street prostitution along State Street– a thoroughfare that extends into both communities. For this reason, the departments have often coordinated when conducting sting operations. For example, in September 2018, Hammond and Calumet City police partnered on a reverse sting after receiving multiple complaints about prostitution in the area. Four men were arrested in less than two hours on September 12 during the operation along State Line Avenue. The identities of the men were included in press releases, and each was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of patronizing a prostitute, police said. A female police officer posed as a prostituted woman for the street-level sting. Police planed to continue to work to prevent prostitution in the area and to release the names of those arrested, according to a news release.

Key Partners

  • Calumet City Police Department
  • Hammond Police Department
  • Burnham Police Department
  • Illinois State Police
  • Neighborhoods, Inc.
  • State Line Against Street Hoodlums (SLASH)

Key Sources

National Assessment Survey (2012)

Reverse Stings, Identity Disclosure:

“No Stopping” Ordinance:

Auto Seizure:

Cameras:

Neighborhood Action:

Sex Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation in the Area:

Background on Prostitution in the Area:

State Illinois
Type City
Population 35159
Location
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