Conyers is a city of approximately 16,000 residents, located 25 miles east of Atlanta in Rockland County, Georgia. Numerous problems associated with local prostitution have been documented in Conyers for decades, including a case of child endangerment involving a 4-year-old child left in a car while prostitution was occurring inside the vehicle. Police have reported that they have investigated rape, robbery, kidnapping, and assault charges related to prostitution in the city.

Following reports from residents and businesses of increased criminal activity in and around the city’s motels, the Conyers Police Department conducted an ad hoc reverse sting in late spring 2013. That May, CPD officers responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle and discovered three females (one pimp and two teenage women) selling sex out of the local Motel 6. After arresting the women, officers from the CPD’s Special Operations Unit “took over the females’ room at the motel and began arresting clients as they arrived.” In just under five hours, six sex buyers were arrested. All of the offenders were charged with pandering and had their names and arrest photos released to the public. Since beginning their reverse stings in 2013 and the Fall of 2019, the Conyers Police Department has conducted 21 such operations and arrested nearly 150 men. According to CPD, the ultimate goal of such operations is to reduce the number of robberies, rapes, drugs, sex trafficking, and other crimes related to prostitution and facilitated by an internet underworld. Various online advertising sites and mobile applications are available to solicit prostitution despite the site’s “warning” prohibiting such activity.

In late February 2014, the CPD coordinated with deputies from the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office to conduct a web-based sting that resulted in the arrest of three prostituted women, two male sex buyers, and one pimp. Although law enforcement provided limited details about the logistics of the operation, news reports stated that undercover officers “utilized social media… to communicate with several individuals and ultimately arrest them.” During the operation, officers discovered a 4-year-old child in the back seat of one of the arrestee’s vehicles. In the days that followed, a representative from the RCSO stated that “although the charges [associated with prostitution] are misdemeanors, operations that target prostitution and pimping can help prevent more dangerous crimes, such as assaults, rapes and robberies that often go hand in hand with these crimes.” One of the two buyers arrested during the sting was found to be a “convicted felon with previous arrests in multiple states for trafficking in cocaine, escape, robbery, and rape.” In March 2014, the CPD conducted two additional reverse stings using online advertisements, resulting in the arrest of 10 sex buyers. In early June 2015, 11 additional men were arrested following a joint reverse sting led by CPD officers and officers from the neighboring Covington Police Department. Following each investigation, all arrestees’ identities were released to the media. In December 2015, Conyers and Covington police again teamed up, this time intercepting 17 male sex buyers during a web-based sting at a local hotel. Officers reported that the “armed robbery of a woman advertising on an online escort services page” had prompted the sting. All of the arrestees’ identities were again publicized in the press. In August 2019, five men were arrested and transported to the Rockdale County Jail and issued two citations for disorderly conduct: One for communicating with a person within the city for the purposes of prostitution and the second for traveling to Conyers for the purpose of pandering. They were also issued criminal trespass warnings and told not to return to the motel (a limited version of the SOAP or “stay-away” order).