Coeur d’Alene is a city of approximately 45,000 residents, located roughly 30 miles east of Spokane, Washington in Kootenai County in northwest Idaho. Sporadic cases of prostitution have been reported in the community for at least 25 years.

In January 2015, the Coeur d’Alene Police Department conducted an ad hoc reverse sting that produced the arrest of one john. After receiving a report from the FBI that officers with the Spokane Police Department had discovered a posting to Craigslist’s “casual encounters” section that posed a “proposition” of sex for money to North Idaho College students, CAPD officers launched an investigation. Working with NIC administrative officials, Coeur d’Alene police “set up a fake [NIC] student account and set up an email address. An officer began emailing the poster of the ad, pretending to be a female student.” During their exchanges, the man “awarded $587 of NIC grant money into the fake student’s account, with the understanding he would go to her apartment to have sex with her.” Police then arranged to meet the john at a Coeur d’Alene apartment complex, and arrested him when he arrived. In the days following his arrest, the john was fired from his position, and charged with five felonies, including attempting to procure a prostitute, attempting to misuse public money and bribery. His identity was also publicized by several media outlets.