Falls Church is a city of approximately 15,000 residents in Fairfax County, Virginia.  The city is part of the Washington DC Metropolitan Area.  Prostitution and child sex trafficking are well-documented problems in the city.  Police efforts to combat these problems include the use of anti-demand tactics.  In October 2009, the Street Crimes Unit of the Fairfax County Police Department Organized Crime and Narcotics Division conducted a street-level reverse sting operation in the Falls Church, Tysons Corner, and Mount Vernon areas. While some officers coordinated street-level decoys and backup support teams, other officers conducted a web-based reverse sting in parallel to street efforts.  The dual-pronged strategy resulted in the arrest of 23 male sex buyers.

In January 2013, a Fall Church press release listing those arrested for prostitution solicitation charges included the names, ages, and addresses of the suspects. In August 2013, FCPD officers conducted a second large-scale reverse sting, this time exclusively using the web to apprehend sex buyers. According to The Washington Post, “23 men were arrested after communicating over the Internet with undercover officers they believed were prostitutes” and arranging to meet the officers at hotels in Falls Church, Springfield, Herndon and Tysons Corner. As in its 2009 operation, the FCPD did not release the names of the arrestees, nor did they disclose the number of sex buyers arrested at each location.