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. The Erie County Sheriff’s Office has collaborated with municipal police departments on reverse stings as a demand control tactic, beginning in the 1970s. In an associated press report from 1977, the Chief of Police in Erie explained a new focus on male sex buyers:  “We’ve been picking the girls up, but all they do is leave town and others take their place. We’re trying to dry up their source of income.” Since the late 1970s, street-level reverse stings have been conducted consistently. Additionally, Erie has had very involved Neighborhood Watch programs that aid police in pinpointing areas of heavy prostitution. In Pennsylvania, a single count of a prostitution charge is a misdemeanor, and multiple counts elevate the offense to the felony range.

In addition to street-level reverse stings, web-based reverse sting have been conducted in the county in response to the growing online commercial sex market. For example, in February 2014, an elected Crawford County constable was bound over to Erie County court on three felony and 19 misdemeanor charges involving the rape of a prostituted woman. He was initially arrested by Millcreek Township police in December 2013, when the victim reported that the she and the constable arranged to meet on several occasions for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex. The offender then used his office as a law enforcement officer to extort the sexual services by threatening to arrest the woman if she did not engage in commercial sex with him. In the fall of 2014, the offender was sentenced in Erie County Court of Common Pleas to 90 days to 12 months in jail. The judge sentenced the former constable in the aggravated range, “citing his position of authority as an elected law enforcement official at the time.” The former constable was scheduled go on trial in Erie County Court of Common Pleas in July 2014 on three counts each of rape by forcible compulsion, indecent assault by forcible compulsion, impersonating a public servant, official oppression, criminal solicitation of prostitution, and patronizing prostitutes; and one count of unlawful restraint. But, on July 8, 2014, the offender entered a plea to three counts of patronizing prostitutes in a plea agreement with the Erie County District Attorney’s Office. As a result of his arrest, he was suspended from duty by Crawford County Court of Common Pleas the same day as his Dec. 27, 2013, arrest. The former constable remained under suspension from all court activities in all counties, according to John Shuttleworth III, county court administrator.