Cuyahoga County is located in northeastern Ohio and its population center is the city of Cleveland. In 2019, the county had approximately 1.235 million residents. The county also contains a number of other communities that have had substantial and persistent sex trafficking and prostitution problems.  The county has experienced a wide range of negative events associated with the local commercial sex market, including HIV-positive prostituted women continuing to sell sex, assaults of both prostituted persons and sex buyers, sex trafficking of adults and children, and homicides that specifically targeted those engaged in prostitution. For example, in 2019, the FBI announced that convicted murderer Samuel Little confessed to murdering 93 women, and authorities have confirmed his connection to 60 of those killings. He was indicted in Hamilton County and Cuyahoga County for the murder of women, many of who were involved in prostitution.

Many of the cities within the county have used demand reduction tactics, including Beachwood, Brook Park, Cleveland Heights, Newburgh Heights, and Orange. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office has collaborated with municipal police departments, state and federal agencies, and multi-jurisdictional task forces to conduct street-level reverse stings since 1976. More recently, it has added web-based reversals to its array of efforts to combat demand. As street-level stings typically utilize undercover female officers, operations have at times involved “dual-sweeps,” in which officers initially saturate a targeted area, arrest all prostituted women in the vicinity, and then replace them with female police decoys along the same streets.

Web-based operations have included large-scale actions and those seeking sex with children. For example, in July 2019 the Ohio Attorney and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor announced two stings in Northeast Ohio that were concurrently carried out during MLB All-Star Week. The two stings, named “Operation Triple Play” and “Operation Home Run” by investigators, resulted in the arrest of 49 sex buyers. Operation Home Run was a prostitution demand initiative conducted by the Attorney General’s Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission (OOCIC), the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force, and the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force. This operation arrested 21 individuals for Soliciting for Prostitution (OH ST § 2907.24). “Buyers soliciting for prostitution are sex predators who fund the human trafficking behind the scenes, where pimps profit from exploiting the vulnerabilities of their victims,” said Mark Rapp, Director of the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force. “Men who buy sex may think they are a party to a victimless crime. They couldn’t be more wrong, the women advertised for paid sexual services are often trafficked through commercial sex.”

Operation Triple Play, an initiative focused on those seeking to engage in sexual activity with those whom they believed to be minor children, was led by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. This operation arrested 28 individuals that could face felony charges of Attempted Unlawful Sexual Conduct with a Minor (OH ST § 2907.04), Importuning (OH ST §2907.07), Possessing Criminal Tools (OH ST § 2923.24), and Attempting Corruption of Another with Drugs (OH ST § 2925.02). Those arrested for trying to purchase sex with children ranged from their 20s to their 60s. The Attorney General’s Office posted a news release that included the identities all 49 people arrested.

Across both operations, participating law enforcement agencies included:

• The Ohio Attorney General’s Office
• Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission
• Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force (Columbus Division of Police, Ohio Investigative Unit)
• Mahoning County Human Trafficking Task Force (Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation)
• Cuyahoga Regional Human Trafficking Task Force (Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office, Independence Police Department)
• The Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
• The Office of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor
• Newburgh Heights Police Department
• S. Department of Homeland Security
• Cleveland Police, U.S. Secret Services
• Austintown Township Police Department
• Solon Police Department
• Streetsboro Police Department
• Cortland Police Department
• The Kent Police Department

In May of 2021, 31 people ranging in age from 20 to 80 years old were arrested as part of “Operation Deja Vu,” a similar undercover operation led by the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. Suspects who came from five different counties, including Cuyahoga County, were arrested after engaging in sexually explicit online conversations with people they believed were minor children.

Initial charges ranging from third-degree to fifth-degree felonies were filed against the defendants, including attempted Unlawful Sexual Conduct with A Minor (OH ST § 2907.04), Disseminating Matter Harmful to Juveniles (OH ST § 2907.31), Importuning (OH ST § 2907.07), Compelling Prostitution (OH ST § 2907.21), Carrying A Concealed Weapon (OH ST § 2923.12), Failure to Comply (OH ST § 2921.331), and Possessing Criminal Tools (OH ST § 2923.24). Undercover officers posed as children under 16 years old. The 31 individuals talked with the children on popular social media apps. Some sent pictures of their genitalia to the officers, who they believed were children, while others offered to pay for sex during those online conversations. “Operation Deja Vu” was the fourth undercover operation the ICAC Task Force has led since 2018. Those operations have yielded 108 arrests combined. Task Force Officials also reported the pandemic playing a crucial role in the significant increase in the number of cyber tips officers have received within the past year,

“In February of 2020, we were averaging anywhere from 700 to 800 cyber tips. In March and April of 2020, we went up to between 1,200 and 1,400 cyber tips. So you have a pandemic, you also have a lot of children going to school at home, you have offenders, adults who are now working from home. Perfect storm in essence, and that those numbers have continued to increase. We received over 10,300 cyber tips last year alone, which puts Ohio in the top five consistently with regards to the work that we have to do.”

All 31 individuals arrested were held in the Cuyahoga County Jail while they waited for their cases to be presented to a grand jury for an indictment.

In February 2022, Ohio Attorney General Yost announced that eight sex buyers had been arrested during a human trafficking sting called “Operation Fouled Out,” which coincided with the National Basketball Association’s All-Star Game in Cleveland. The sting was coordinated through the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission and led by the Cuyahoga Regional Human Trafficking Task Force, and involved several law enforcement agencies and social services organizations. Attorney General Yost said of the operation:

“This operation’s mission was two-fold: to arrest johns soliciting sex and to proactively encounter potential victims. Our task reinforced both the consequences for buying sex and the pathways available for victims to find a way out.”

The names ages, and hometowns of the arrested sex buyers were released to the public, and their mugshots were posted on the attorney general’s Twitter page. In addition to arresting sex buyers, law enforcement also identified and interviewed 15 individuals selling sex, and potential victims of sex trafficking were provided assistance and health care by organizations including the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and Canopy Child Advocacy Center.

Ohio Revised Code

Sex Crimes

• Compelling Prostitution (OH ST § 2907.21) is a felony of the third degree and requires offenders to register as Tier 2 Sex Offenders.
• Unlawful Sexual Conduct with a Minor (OH ST § 2907.04) is a felony of the fourth degree and requires offenders to register as Tier 2 Sex Offenders.
• Disseminating Matter Harmful to Juveniles (OH ST § 2907.31) is a felony in the fifth degree if material or performance involved is obscene, and a felony in the fourth degree if the material or performance involved is obscene and the juvenile to whom it is sold, delivered, furnished, disseminated, provided, exhibited, rented, or presented, the juvenile to whom the offer is made or who is the subject of the agreement, or the juvenile who is allowed to review, peruse, or view it is under thirteen years of age and requires offenders to register as Tier 2 Sex Offenders.
• Importuning (OH ST §2907.07) is a is a felony of the fifth degree on a first offense, and is a felony of the fourth degree if the offender previously has been convicted of a sexually oriented offense or a child-victim oriented offense and requires offenders to register as Tier 1 Sex Offenders.

Other Crimes

• Possessing Criminal Tools (OH ST § 2923.24) is a felony of the fifth degree if the circumstances indicate that the substance, device, instrument, or article involved in the offense was intended for use in the commission of a felony.
• Carrying A Concealed Weapon (OH ST §2923.12) is a felony in the fourth degree.
• Failure to Comply (OH ST § 2921.331) is a felony of the fourth degree if the jury or judge as trier of fact finds by proof beyond a reasonable doubt that, in committing the offense, the offender was fleeing immediately after the commission of a felony.
• Attempting Corruption of Another with Drugs (OH ST § 2925.02) is a felony of the second degree.

ORC Felony Punishments

• Third-degree felonies — 9 months to 36 month (1-5 years for certain F-3’s) in prison and a maximum of $10,000 in fines
• Fourth-degree felonies — 6 months to 18 months in prison and a maximum of $5,000 in fines
• Fifth-degree felonies — 6 months to 12 months in prison and a maximum of $2,500 in fines

Sex Offender Registration

The state of Ohio has a Three Tier Offense-Based Registry. Each crime is classified by either Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3, Tier 3. The tiers include crimes that range in severity, Tier 1 being least severe and Tier 3 being most severe.

The length of registration is dependent upon an offender’s classification:

• Tier 3: Lifetime registration (every 90 days)
• Tier 2: 25 years’ registration (every 180 days)
• Tier 1: 15 years’ registration (annually), or 10 years in certain cases