Flathead County has approximately 102,000 residents and is located by the Canadian border in Northwest Montana. Its county seat and largest city is Kalispell, MT. Cases of prostitution and sex trafficking have been documented throughout the county. Among the more serious crimes associated with the local commercial sex market is child sex trafficking. For example, in 2004, a county businessman was indicted on 14 prostitution-related offenses, the majority of which were felonies for soliciting sex from minors and child sexual abuse.

Consumer-level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking, and has therefore been targeted by local law enforcement as a strategy for prevention and response. The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) has been known to periodically conduct web-based reverse sting operations that target adults seeking to purchase sex from minors. For example, in August 2014, FCSO deputies worked with officers from the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the Missoula Police Department to conduct a child sex trafficking investigation. During the operation, officers arrested at least six male sex buyers from Kalispell and another from Missoula. Although the details of the sting were not immediately disclosed, members of the local media reported that at least one of the male sex buyers was arrested after he tried to solicit sex from a detective who was posing as a mother ‘advertising’ her daughter. The man allegedly placed “a series of calls and text messages, [and] arranged to meet either a 10-year-old girl or a 15-year-old girl in exchange for a ‘donation.’ [He] stated he didn’t know which one he wanted because he wanted to see them first.” The names of some of the male sex buyers were released to the public.

The FCSO and the Kalispell Police Department (KDP) have also known to periodically collaborate to conduct web-based reverse sting operations, targeting individuals seeking to purchase commercial sex. For example, in 2017, a collaborative web-based reverse sting resulted in the arrest of seven male sex buyers. Each of the sex buyers received misdemeanor citations for responding to decoy advertisements for commercial sex. Officers from FCSO and KPD ran the online ads for two days and received 145 emails and 60 text messages in response. The men who arranged to meet who they believed to be a prostituted woman were cited upon their arrival at a local motel. The operation was a combined effort of the FCSO, the KPD, the Montana ICAC Task Force, the Northwest Drug Task Force, and Homeland Security Investigations. The identities of the sex buyers were not released.

In 2009, a 57-year-old Trego man was arrested on three counts of soliciting prostitution after reporting to Kalispell police that a woman had stolen his checkbook after they engaged in commercial sex. The prostituted woman and another individual were arrested after police discovered they had cashed separate $1,500 checks written on the sex buyer’s account and unsuccessfully attempted to cash additional checks a few days later. In 2010, the sex buyer entered a plea agreement that reduced the two felony counts of prostitution and one misdemeanor count of prostitution to two misdemeanor charges of soliciting prostitution.

In 2011, a 32-year-old Columbia Falls man was arrested on charges of sexual intercourse without consent, sexual assault, and accountability to sexual intercourse without consent—all felony charges punishable by up to life in prison. The arrest came after a 13-year-old Kalispell teenager reported the abuse to her baby sitter. Upon further investigation, police discovered that the girl had been sex trafficked by her mother in exchange for drugs. The survivor said that in addition to the man coming to her home, her mother would drive her to the sex buyer’s trailer where he and his 19-year-old friend would rape her. This occurred once or twice a week. The girl’s mother/sex trafficker was arrested and charged with aggravated promotion of prostitution, a felony, which is also punishable by up to life in prison. The names and images of arrested offenders were included in reports by local media outlets.