Sex buyer arrests and identity disclosure are consequences of sex buying that have occurred in the city. For example, in January, 2007, the Carter County Grand Jury icharged a man with one count of solicitation of a minor in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-13-528. In July of 2007, the man pled guilty to the charge. The man testified that he was driving on Charlotte Drive in Elizabethton, Tennessee near Elizabethton High School, when he saw a person walking down the street. He slowed down and asked the person if he wanted to exchange sex for one hundred dollars. The propositioned person was in fact under eighteen years of age. The identity of the sex buyer was publicly disclosed.

In April 2017, two men were arrested following an investigation conducted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) after they received information from the Knoxville Police Department regarding possible sex trafficking of underage girls. TBI Special Agents, with assistance from the Elizabethton Police Department, 1st Judicial District Attorney’s Office, and Department of Homeland Security, discovered the alleged trafficking occurred at a motel along U.S. Highway 19E in Elizabethton. One man paid a 14-year-old girl $60 and the other paid a 17-year-old $200 for sexual abuse. The two sex buyers were arrested and charged with aggravated statutory rape, solicitation of a minor, and “patronizing prostitution of a minor” (i.e., sex trafficking). Their identities were released to the press.