Cement is a town of approximately 500 residents in Caddo County, OK. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been well-documented problems in the town and surrounding areas. Among the more serious issues associated with the city’s prostitution market is child sexual exploitation. For example, between April and September 2020, Snapchat, the social medial platform, reported that a user uploaded multiple child sexual abuse images (CSAM) of a young girl. The platform reported the images to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), who traced the IP address to Hydro, OK. NCMEC notified the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) of the images, who proceeded by executing a search warrant at the identified address. The offender was arrested at the Hydro Police Department on three counts of first-degree rape, three counts of rape by instrumentation, three counts of distribution of obscene or indecent writings/pictures, two counts of forcible sodomy, and one count of violation of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act. According to reports, the offender was identified as the assistant chief of the Hydro Police Department and a reserve deputy with the Caddo County Sheriff’s Office.

Loss of employment and identity disclosure are consequences of buying sex in the city. For example, in June 2019, the former Chief of Police in Cement was arrested by deputies from the Grady County Sheriff’s Office after allegedly sexually exploiting a 16-year-old girl in exchange for money. The 40-year-old was officially charged with Soliciting Child Prostitution. According to police records, the former officer had known the girl for five years. The girl called him a “father figure” and a “ role model.” The former police chief was married with four children. He had arranged to meet the girl in an alley behind her home in Chickasha, OK. The former police chief allegedly attempted to sexually exploit the girl and another juvenile female  in exchange for money, which both victims refused. When questioned subsequently by Chickasha Police, the man allegedly admitted to having propositioned the victim and also admitted to trying to contact a second juvenile female for oral sex. After pleading guilty in February 2020 to a criminal felony charge for soliciting child prostitution (i.e., child sex trafficking), the former Police Chief was issued a maximum 10-year sentence. Grady County District Court records showed that he was ordered to serve the first three years of his sentence with the Department of Corrections, while the remaining term was suspended. As part of the plea agreement, he would be subject to mandatory compliance with the Oklahoma Sex Offender Registration Act, and his probation would be supervised for two years after his release. As a result of his arrest, the Town of Cement Board of Trustees voted to fire the acting police chief the day following his arrest. The Caddo County Sheriff’s Office assumed law enforcement responsibilities in the town until a replacement could be arranged.