Douglasville is a city in Georgia with approximately 34,000 residents. The city of Douglasville is the county seat of Douglas County. Douglasville is located approximately 20 miles west of Atlanta and is part of the Atlanta Metro Area. Prostitution activity has been well-documented in the city, surrounding communities, and other areas of the county. This activity and the problems and ancillary crimes it generates result in complaints to law enforcement agencies from residents and businesses.

Consumer-level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking and has therefore been targeted by local law enforcement agencies as a strategy for prevention and response. For example, in February 2015, Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 13 men in a prostitution sting. After receiving numerous complaints about prostitution, the DCSO Special Investigations Division ran an ad on the Internet advertising sexual acts for money. Numerous suspects reportedly called the phone number listed in the online ad and were given the address to a room in the area of Thornton Road in Lithia Springs. They arrived at the room, expecting to meet a prostitute, but were arrested for misdemeanor pandering instead. The identities of the men were publicly released. All the men were granted a $3,500 bond for the pandering charge, and three of them were also charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and were granted a $1,000 bond on that charge.

In February 2017, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigation Division and the Douglasville Police Special Operations Unit conducted an operation targeting prostitution and pandering. The operation took place on Feb. 17 and ended in the arrest of several male sex buyers. The men were charged with pandering, and one was additionally charged with possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.

Among the more serious crimes associated with the local commercial sex market is sex trafficking. For example, in February 2018, it was announced that Douglasville participated in the 15^th “National Johns Suppression Initiative” (NJSI). The NJSI’s are coordinated efforts to target sex buyers and reduce sex trafficking, conducted by a national coalition of law enforcement agencies. The coordinated operation collectively led to more than 630 arrests from 1/7/18 to 2/4/18 and included more than 30 law enforcement agencies across 16 states. The Douglasville Police Department reported that they arrested 11 sex buyers during their operation.